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®:0 mt| Wif 0^ 

"Who, after my Long Yeaes op Alternate Trial and Relief, wa.s 

SENT TO ME BY A GrACIOUS PROVIDENCE, AT A TiME OF DeEP 

Earthly Gloom, as a Light and a Joy ; and amid the 
Changes of a Busy Life, a Sympathising Friend, 
A Wise Counsellor, and Unselfish Sharer 
IN Joy and Sorrow ; an Earnest Help- 
meet in all my Work, for a 
Quarter Century, 

^Ixts l^olutn^ of ITcmmisc^nc^s 

Is most Affectionately Dedicated, 
By a Devoted Husband, 

THE AUTHOR. 



1.1^ A3- 



PREFACE. 



THE greater portion of a life, now protracted beyond tlie 
limit assigned to man, having been spent in close con- 
nection with the practical work of education in the South 
and Southwest, and my individual labors having been de- 
voted, to a far greater extent, to the public institutions of 
the land of my birth than to any private enterprises of my 
own, some of my most intimate and judicious friends, 
in whose candor and sincerity I repose the utmost confi- 
dence, have, more than once, suggested the propriety of my 
committing to permanent record the reminiscences con- 
nected with educational history familiar to me. In addition 
to these suggestions from private sources, I have been ap- 
plied to by gentlemen sustaining important relations to the 
Bureau of Education, Department of the Interior, to aid 
those engaged in collecting the annals of the educational 
history of South Carolina. These annals have j-eference, so 
far as I am concerned, especially to '' Willington Academ}^" 
founded by Dr. Moses "Waddel, where so many distinguished 
men of South Carolina and Georgia were trained under his 
superintendence. 

This work has been undertaken by me not without a pro- 
found sense of my inadequacy to the successful accomplish- 
ment of the task and a consciousness of my deficiency in the 
great qualities essential to authorshiiD. 

Let it be kept in -view, however, that in such a work as is 
here contemplated, much of the private life of my father 

5 



6 Preface. 

must necessarily be included, and its details may furnish 
little of interest to the mass of readers. His contempora- 
ries have long since j^assed away in the vast majority. Be- 
sides, *'the short and simple annals" of a teacher's life hold 
out a small attraction for any but his immediate descend- 
ants. There are readers, however, who wdll feel interested 
in the biography of men whose labors w^ere given, as his 
were, always to unselfish public work. I offer no apology 
for accompanying this publication with some account of his 
life and labors, inasmuch as the results of his labors, being 
matters of history, will naturally awaken some desire, even 
in the present generation of readers, to know somewhat of 
the life and character of the man himself. 

This, then, in part, will serve to explain my purpose in 
undertaking to furnish this narrative. But it wdll be con- 
ceded that it would fall short very far of a record of 
the entire history of Southern and Southwestern educa- 
tion were it to comprise only a notice of its progress under 
one of its earlier agents, however important his labors 
may have been. Each age has its own workers, and each 
can furnish only its individual contribution to the history 
of the whole. 

As some small part of this history, showing the successive 
advance of this great cause, so as to bring the present gen- 
eration into personal association with its progress, I venture 
to incorporate in the work the amount of my personal 
knowledge and identity with the history. It may furnish 
future writers, so far as it is presented, a foundation for its 
continuance. I propose to cover this second era in the 
record with a narrative of my personal connection with the 
cause. It will extend over a j^eriod of some sixty years, 
embracing reminiscences of j)rivate work, as well as that of 
those public institutions of which I formed part of the corps 
of instructors. 

In this case, as in the case of Bev. Dr. Moses Waddel, it 



Preface. 7 

is impossible to avoid statements of fact that will be en- 
tii-ely personal, inasmuch as the work done by me during 
my manhood, and within the half century now near its close, 
has been almost solely the work of education. Conse- 
quently, if I write on that subject, I must write, more or 
less, of myself. I trust, however, that though these state- 
ments of details of private life might i)rove to my readers 
somewhat dry and unattractive taken alone, ,they may, 
nevertheless, l^e somewhat tolerated upon the ground that, 
interspersed through the narrative will be found, of neces- 
sity, allusions to and sketches of eminent and distinguished 
characters with whom I was incidentally associated, and of 
many of my own contemporaries and classmates, who after- 
wards reached distinction in their several pursuits and pro- 
fessions. 

The period covered by this record embraces much of mo- 
mentous interest and importance to our country and to the 
world, exerting more or less of influence upon the history 
of education, in not only intellectual training, but in the 
events of the pohtical world, as well as in scientific and 
Christian civilization. A bare allusion to these facts will 
serve to recall them to many now living and acting. When 
we mention the Nullification ordinance of 1832 in South 
Carolina, and the coin^Dromise of 1833 ; the Abolition move- 
ment; the Kansas and Nebraska excitement; the Mexican 
war and the annexation of Texas ; the civil war between the 
States 5 and the emancipation of the slaves of the South; 
then turning from this pohtical crowd of grand events, and 
thinking of the advance of this land and all others in all 
imaginable and unimaginable forms of invention and dis- 
covery in science, and lastly, the progress made in the vic- 
tories of the Christian religion, the conclusion is inevitable, 
that never in any previous three-quarter century has the 
world made progress so illustrious as the present era has 
exhibited in such rapid succession. 



CONTENTS. 



EEV. MOSES WADDEL, D. D. 



CHAPTER I. 

Sketch of Parents. — Emigration to America. — Birth of Moses Wad- 
del.— Schools of his Childhood to his Fourteenth Year,.-. 25 

CHAPTER IL 
Invitation to Teach Declined. —Father's Reasons. — Views of the 
Son then and in after Life.— First Engagements as Teacher. — 
Filial Disobedience. — Results, — Reflections, 30 

CHAPTER III. 
Resumes Teaching. — Dancing Parties. — Wavering Resolutions. — 
Final Decision. — Religious Impressions. — Public Profession of 
Religion, .. 33 

CHAPTER IV. 
Spiritual Conflicts. —Tenderness of Conscience. —Methods of Re- 
lief.— Final Victory, --- 36 

CHAPTER V. 
Resolution to Enter the Ministry, and to Complete the Prehminary 
Education.— Enters Hampden-Siduey College. —Candidate, 
Under Care of Presbytery of Hanover.— Licensure and Dis- 
missal to Presbytery of South Carolina, ._- 41 

CHAPTER VI. 
Removals.— First and Second Marriages. —First and Second Loca- 
tions. —Pupils, Calhoun and Crawford, 44 

CHAPTER VII. 
Willington Academy.— Building and Character of the Institution.— 
Methods of Instruction and Discipline, 49 

9 



10 Contents. 

CHAPTER YIII. 
Improvement in the Building.— Orgauizatiou of the Church. — Re- 
vival in the Academy and Neighborhood. — Results, 53 

CHAPTER IX. 
Further Notice of the Government and Discipline of the Willing- 
ton Academy. —Domestic History of Dr. Waddel and his 
Family, 56 

CHAPTER X. 
Conferring of the Degree of D. D. — Poreigners Receiving Instruc- 
tion from him in English. — An Incident. — Style of Old-Fash- 
ioned Church Building.— Mode of Conducting the Music and 
of Administering the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 61 

CHAPTER XI. 
Work Accomplished as a Teacher.- Men Trained by him who Be- 
came Distinguished.— Correction of a Statement in Partou's 
Life of Andrew Jackson. — Arrangements for Retiring from 
Teaching, 67 

CHAPTER XII. 
Iklemoir of Caroline Elizabeth Smelt. — Removal to Athens.— Pre- 
vious History of the University. — Condition of Buildings and 
Endowment Prospects, - 71 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Sketches of Dr. Waddel's Colleagues of the Faculty from 1819 to 

1820, 77 

CHAPTER XIV. 
University Administration During Dr. Waddel's Presidency. — His 
Life in Athens. — His Services to the Cause of Christian Edu- 
cation, 92 

CHAPTER XY. 
3)r» Waddel's Objects in View in Accepting the Presidency of the 
Universit}'. — Successful Results. — Close of his Term of Ser- 
vice.- — Resignation, 100 

CHAPTER XVL 
Death of Mrs. Waddel. ■ — Manner of Life in Retirement. —Churches 
he Served. — His Associates Among His Ministerial Brethren. 
Last Sickness and Death, 119 



Contents. H 



WILLIAM HENKY WADDEL. 

Memorial Kecord of the Life, Labors, and Character of William 
Henry Waddel, Professor of Ancient Languages in the Uni- 
versity of Georgia, . .... 129 

APPENDIX. 

I. Miual Tablet in "Willingtou Church, 138 

IL MuralTabletin Athens Church, .__ 138 

in. Inscription Oil Pillar at Cemetery 139 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth and Some Eeminiscences of My First Seven Years, 143 

CHAPTER n. 
My Preparatory School-Days in Athens, Ga., 150 

CHAPTER III. 
College Life in the University of Georgia, 167 

CHAPTER IV. 
Reflections. — Sketch of Athens Life After Gradiaation. — Removal 
to South Carolina, and Prospects of Beginning the Life of a 
Teacher, .__ 181 

CHAPTER V. 
First School. Death of My Mother. —Life in the Country. —A Col- 
lege Associate. — My Habits, 186 

CHAPTER YL 
Feelings and Views on the Subject of Religion. — My Father's 
Preaching, and my Estimate of it at that Time. — Some Notice 
of George McDuffie and Others, _.. _ 193 

CHAPTER VIL 
Courtship and First Marriage, 202 



12 Contents. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Incidents, Public and Private, in 1832 -'33. —Sketch of J. C. Cal- 
houn. — Nullification, 206 

CHAPTER IX 
Purchase of Land in Alabama. — Removal. — Signal Providential 

Interference in My Behalf, 218 

CHAPTER X. 
Four Years' Residence iu Alabama, with its Consequences, and 

Another Removal, 223 

CHAPTER XI. 
A Visit to South Carolina, and Removal of Family to Mississippi. 
—Business Settlements in Mobile, and Incident There. — New 
Home,___„ . - - — - 232 

CHAPTER XII. 

Prosecution of Ministerial Studies. — Licensure by the Presbytery 

of Mississippi. — Places of my First Year's Preaching, 237 

CHAPTER XIIL 
Establishment and Organization of Montrose Academy. — Its Pro- 
gress and Influence. — Supply of Religious Destitutions. — Diffi- 
culties, - 241 

CHAPTER XIV. 
More Sorrow. — Incorporation of Board of Trustees of University 
of the State. — Proceedings of the Board. — Coming Events 
Foreshadowed, ^ 246 

CHAPTER XV. 
Election of Faculty of the University. ^ — Initiatory Difficulties. — 
Farewell Sermons. — Removal to Oxford, and Formal Open- 
ing, . 251 

CHAPTER XVL 
General Educational History of Mississippi, 257 

CHAPTER XVIL 
Preparatory Steps for the Opening of the University. — Erection of 

Buildings and Inauguration Ceremonies, 260 



Contents. 13 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
General View of Matters Connected with the First Session of the 

Universitj'-, 266 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees.— Election of Presi- 
dent.— Some Statistics.— Sketch of President Longstreet and 
Others, 273 

CHAPTER XX. 
Brief Sketches of the Chartered Board, . 287 

CHAPTER XXI. 



Financial History, 292 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Statistical Statements, _„ 298 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Changes and Additions in the Faculty from Time to Time. — Dan- 
ville Theological Seminary.— Other Changes in the Course of 
Study, and Other Facts, 301 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Review of Private and Domestic History from 18-18 to 1857, 309 

CHAPTER XXV 
Establishment of a Church College by the Synod of Memphis. — 
Election of a Facult5\ —Discussion iu Relation to the Loca- 
tion. — Choice of La Grange, Tennessee, 319 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Rehictance on my Part to Leaving Mississippi.— Inducements 
Held Out. — Resignation and Removal to La Grange. — Action 
of Faculty and Studer ts on my Resignation, 324 

CHAPTER XXVIL 
Visit to the North, and Opening Prospects of the College iu 1857. 

General Train of V/ork, 328 

CHAPTER XXVIIL 
Sketches of the Faculty.— Rev. John H. Gray, D. D.— Professor 

J= R. Blake. - Professor James L. Meigs, 33'4 



14 Contents. 

CHAPTEP. XXIX. 
Second Session. — General Character of the "Work. — Mode of Dis- 
cipline. — Progress of the Endowment, 345 

CHAPTER XXX. 
Besignation of Dr. Gray. — Election of his Successor. — Corre- 
spondence with Davidson College i^.uthoritiss, 348 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
Routine of College Work. — Boarding System. — Dormitory Plan 

Discussed, 356 

CHAPTER XXXIL 
Meeting of the Synod in 1860, and Final Decision of the Qiies- 
tion. — The Election of Lincoln. — Close of the Fourth Session 
of the College. —The End, 360 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Further Notes of War Experience in La Grange, and My Escape 

from the Lines, 366 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 
Effect of the War Upon the Presbyteries of the South. — Dr. 
Spring's Resolutions. — Atlanta Convention. — Organization of 
the General Assembly, December 4 1861, -. 372 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

Return to La Grange. — Continuation of War Record. — Personal 

Incidents, 381 

CHAPTER XXXVL 

Resumption of the Narrative of the Escape. — Mode of Life in 

Mississippi. — Occupation and Service until the Spring of 1863, 389 

CHAPTER XXXVIL 
Appointed Commissioner of Army Missions in the Mississippi 
Army. — Two Sad Events of the Year. — Arrival of my Chil- 
dren from La Grange, 395 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
More Perils and Escapes. — Residence at MeridiarC and at Mont- 
gomery. — Wanderings. — Change of Work. — In Danger of 
Capture, 403 



Contents. 15 

CHAPTEH XXXIX. 
Finale of the Sherman-Smith Raid. — Return to Mississippi with 
my Children. — Marriage of My Yonngest Daughter. — Fourth 
Meeting of the General Assembly. — Change of Location in 
Army Worli, ^ 415 

CHAPTER XL„ 
Sojourn iu Atlanta and in Camp.— General Johnson Relieved. — 
Evacuation of Atlanta. — Stay in Euf aula. —Death of my Son 
at Jonesboro. — Army Movement Toward Nashville, 422 

CHAPTER XLI. 

Appointment to a New Service, and Last Days of the Confed- 
eracy.. — Gloom and Despondency. — Destitiition of the South, 428 

CHAPTER XLIL 
Incidents of Personal Historj'. — Release from all Ofhcial Duties 

Growing Out of the War.— Visits to Old Homes, 433 

CHAPTER XLIIL 
Private Histor}'. — Attendance at the Meeting of the Presbytery of 
Memphis. — Meeting at Holly Springs. — Return to Oxford and 
Settlement there, 441 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

Governor Sharkey's Term of Service. — Oxford my Home. — Elec- 
tion to the Chancellorship of the University. —Marriage. — 
Care of Oxford Church. — Address before the Legislature, 445 

CHAPTER XLV. 
Advance of University Work. — Additions to the Faculty. — Annoy- 
ances Threatening Disturbance. — Close of First Session. — 
Sketches of Some Professors. — Changes of State Government. 
— Political Trouble in Prospect, 456 

CHAPTER XLVI. 
Under a New Regime. — Signs of Diminished Patronage. — Judge 
Hudson's Letter and Answer to It.— Governor Alcorn. — New 
Board Appointed. — A Sketch. — Small Attendance, 464 

CHAPTER XLVIL 
Return of Confidence in the University on the Part of the People 
of the State. — Governor Alcorn. — Respect Shown the Board. 
— Two Unpleasant Incidents. — The Dormitory System.— 
Change of the System of the University, 472 



16 * Contents. 

CHAPTER XLVITI. 
Burden of Eesponsibility. — Church and State Institutions. — Atti- 
tude of the University Toward Christianity. — Free Tuition. — 
Work Done by its Graduates.- — Historical Address. — Degree 
of LL. D. Conferred by University of Georgia, 481 

CHAPTER XLIX. 
General Assembly of 1868. — Elected Moderator. — Proceedings. — 
Educational Convention. — Director of Church University. — 
Results of Two Meetings — General Assembly of 1874. — 
Elected Secretary of Education. — Resignation, . 488 

CHAPTER L. 
Maturing my Views as to Accepting the Office of Secretary of 
Education, — Advised Against it. — Formal Acceptance. — A 
Difference. — The Question Settled by the Assembly. — Epi- 
demic of Yellow-Fever of 1878. — Joined Presbytery of Mem- 
phis. 497 

CHAPTER LI. 
Resiime of Matters. — Correspondence with Dr. Palmer in 1878- 
'79. — Conflict of Feeling. — Attendance on Meetings of the 
Directory. — Re-organization of Stewart College and Election 
of the Faculty, 507 

CHAPTER LII. 
Attendance on Assembly May 15, 1879. — Return to Memphis and 
Preparation to Remove. — Resignation of the Secretaryship 
and Election of Successor. — Farewell Sermon. — Arrival at 
Clarksville and Address to the Six Synods, 515 

CHAPTER LIII. 
The Epidemic Again. — Number of Students. — The Public School. 
—The Free Feature of the University. — Character of the 
Faculty. — The Student Body Before and After the New Cr- 
ganization. — Discipline and Christian Influence, 524 

CHAPTER LIV. 
Proceedings and Action of the Board. — Resignation of Professor 
Dinwiddie. — Election of Professor Massie, — Resignation of 
Professor Hemphill. — Election of Professor Nicolassen. — Es- 
tablishment of a Chair and its Endowment — Election of Dr. 
Welch. — Refusal of Presbytery to Dissolve Pastoral Relation. 
— Dr. Price Elected and Accepting, 531 



Contents. 17 

CHAPTER LV. 
Divinity School Established. — Election of Professor and the Chair 

Endowed. — Dr. Caldwell's Resignation, 537 

CHAPTER LVI. 

Divinity School and First Class.— Sketch of Vice-President Welch, 542 

CHAPTER LVII. 
Filling Vacancies. — Withdrawal of Synod of Texas. — Sketches. — 
Failing Health and Resignation of Chancellor. — Election of 
Successor and Inaiignration Exercises, 547 

CHAPTER LVIII. 
General Review. — What is a Christian Institution. — Closing Re- 
flections on the Subject' of Education, 553 

APPENDIX. 

I. Correspondence on Danville Seminary, 565 

II. Correspondence on Resignation of Chancellorship of Univer- 
sity of Mississippi, 569 

III. Correspondence on Resignation of Chancellorship of South- 

western Presbyterian University, 572 

IV. Closing Exercises of Ninth Commencement, 581 



MEMORIALS 



OF 



The Waddel Family 



OF 



THE WADDEL FAMILY, 



REV. MOSES WADDEL, D. D., 

FOKMERLY PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. 



CHAPTER I. 



Sketch of Parents. — Emigbation to America. — Birth of Moses 
Waddel. —Schools and Teachers. — Op His Childhood to His 
Fourteenth Year. 

THE father of the subject of these memoirs was WilHam 
Wadclel, and the maiden name of his mother was Sarah 
Morrow. They were natives of the north of Ireland, and^ 
at the time of their emigration to North America, resided in 
the county of Down, near Belfast. Their removal took 
place in the year 176G, when they left their native land in 
order to seek a new home in the Western World, accom- 
panied by live daughters, the eldest being too young to ren- 
der much assistance to her parents. The immediate cause 
of this removal seems to have been the loss of a daughter 
and only son, both of whom had fallen victims to small-pox. 
Like the very large majority of the people of their oppressed 
native countiy, they were by no means wealthy. After pay- 
ing all debts, procm-ing needed supplies for the voyage, and 
defraying the necessary expenses of passage, Mr. Waddel 
found that he had left fifty guineas and a few shillings — 
truly an inconsiderable capital w^herewith to meet the heavy 
responsibilities of a new settlement in a strange land, with a 

25 



26 Moses "Waddel, D. D. 

famiij'- ^ Jielpless and dependent as his. His original 
design seems to liayejpeen to settle himself in Georgia ; but 
the unusual roughness of the voyage and the severity of ihe 
-weather induced a change in the direction of the vessel, 
■which resulted in its landing at Charleston, S. C. This 
occurred on January 25, 1767. Here he received many in- 
vitations and offers of employment to induce him to settle in 
different parts of South Carolina ; but meeting with a man 
from the upper j^art of North Carolina, who was then in 
Charleston with his wagon, and who represented the ad- 
vantages of that part of the country so favorably, and who 
projDosed so generously to assist in removing his family with 
his wagon, which had discharged its freight of agricultural 
produce in the city, and was on the eve of returning, he de- 
cided to seek his fortune in the newly-settled parts of that 
State. 

Having arrived in Rowan county, he purchased a tract of 
land on easy terms (as land was then very cheap), and 
effected a settlement on the margin of the South Yadkin 
river. Here, then, he found himself almost literally begin- 
ning the world again. The cost of stocking his farm with 
the necessary cattle, hogs, and horses; the indispensable 
implements and utensils for farming purposes, and the pur- 
chase of provisions for the first jT.ar's support, all combined, 
deeply drained the small resources of the new settler. But 
frugality, industry, and perseverance, with unshaken trust in 
Providence, enabled him to go on safely and close the year 
in comfort. 

Here it was that Moses Waddel was born, on the 29th of 
July, 1770. He received his name from the extreme impro- 
bability of his surviving his birth many hours. 

At the age of six years he was entered as a pupil in a 
neighborhood school taught by a gentleman, a Mr. McKown, 
an excellent teacher. Although the school-house was dis- 
tant three miles from his father's house, and from the feeble- 



Progress at School. 27 

ness of his health, it was supposed that he would not con- 
tinue to attend during the entire period of the session, yet 
he did attend rather more than half the time. During this 
time he learned to read with accuracy and to write a toler- 
ably fair hand. His progress, all things considered, was 
regarded as exceeding that of any child in the school. 

Dm-ing the year 1778 the Rev. James Hall, who had been 
ordained and installed in the congregations of Concord, 
Fourth Creek, and Bethany, conceived the design of estab- 
lishing a grammar school within the bounds of these con- 
gregations, for the benefit and improvement of the young 
people in his charge. Dr. Hall was not the teacher of this 
school, which was six or seven miles distant from his resi- 
dence; he was only its principal patron and general super- 
intendent. It was projected and commenced during the 
revolutionary war. Situated in a high and healthful part of 
North Carolina, remote from the sea coast, the people were 
not wealthy nor luxurious. The population was rather 
sparse. Commerce at that time was almost entirely annihi- 
lated in every part of the United States. Independence had 
been declared, and a most rigorous war was then in actual 
progress for its estabUshment, but the active military oper- 
ations during that year were confined chiefly to the north- 
ern States, and the seat of war was in that region. Under 
such unfavorable circumstances this grammar school was 
projected by Dr. HaU. Owing to the scarcity of money and 
the difficulty of disposing of any property or produce that 
would command it, the prospect of securing a sufficient num- 
ber of pupils to form a school was by no means encourag- 
ing. Some gentlemen in the neighborhood of Mr. Waddel, 
who were zealous for the promotion of the school, having 
heard of the rapid i^rogress made by his youngest son in 
learning to read and write the Enghsh language, proposed 
to him to enter Moses as a scholar to learn Latin. The 
proposition at first was regarded by the father as absui'd, on 



28 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

account of the difficulty of procuring money to buy books 
and meet the expenses of tuition, etc. ; but, urged by the 
advice and importunity of Kobert King, Esq., a near neigh- 
bor of great prudence and piety, as well as by James King 
and several other judicious neighbors, he at length, confid- 
ing in the providence of that God who had always provided 
for him in his difficulties, consented to enter Moses on the 
list of pupils. 

Accordingly, a sufficient number of pupils having been 
engaged, the school was opened on the north side of the 
South Yadkin river on the 27th or 28th of October, 1778, 
under the instruction of Mr. James McEwen. The name 
of the seminary, which had probably been selected by Dr. 
Hall, was " Clio's Nursery." 

On the day above mentioned the subject of these memoirs 
entered on the study of the Latin grammar, in the teaching 
of which he silent so many of the succeeding jesivs of his 
life. At that time he was only eight years and three months 
old. Mr. McEwen conducted " CHo's Nursery " successfully 
for the first year of its existence, and proved himself to the 
entire satisfaction of his patrons and pupils to be an accu- 
rate, diligent, and excellent instructor. At the close of the 
year, having been a student of divinity and a candidate for 
the gospel ministry, he was licensed to preach, and, after 
having furnished promise of much usefulness as a minister, 
he died within little more than a year thereafter. 

The classmates of Moses Waddel in this school w^ere five 
in number, viz. : Edward Harris, who held the office of 
judge of the superior court of North Carolina during life ; 
David Purviance and Richard King, who became useful and 
honored ministers of the gospel ; James Nisbet and Joseph 
Guy, who were successful ph^^sicians, and 3'et served their 
country as representatives in the State Legislature. 

" Clio's Nursery " was placed, in the year 1779, under the 
instruction of Mr. Francis Cummins, a student of divinity 



His Teachers. 29 

and a candidate for the ministry with Rev. Dr. Hall. The 
seminary continued under the care of Mr. Cummins and 
was prosperous until the news reached the neighborhood 
that Charleston had surrendered to the British army, on 
May 12th, 1780, and that the enemy had penetrated the 
countr}^ within fifty miles of the settlement. By reason of 
the disturbance resulting from their incursions, the opera- 
tions of the seminary were suspended until April, 1782, 
when they were resumed under the superintendence of Mr. 
John Newton, who was an excellent and successful instruc- 
tor, afterwards also a minister of the gospel. AVitli Mr. 
Newton Moses Waddel continued his studies with profit, 
and learned to enjoy his association with so kind and faith- 
ful an instructor. The next teacher under whose instruc- 
tion he was placed w^as Mr. Samuel Young, subsequently a 
minister of the gospel in "Winnsborough, South Carolina. 
With this teacher his connection with " Clio's Nursery " as 
pupil was brought to a close; so that, in the summer of 
1784, he had completed the study of the Latin and Greek 
languages, arithmetic, Euclid's Elements, geography, moral 
philosophy, and criticism. This course of study he had 
accomplished under the above-named teachers during about 
five or six years' attendance, and before he had completed 
his fourteenth year. 



CHAPTER 11. 

Invitation to Teach. — Declined.— Fathek's Keasons. — Views or the 
Son then and in After Life. — Fikst Engagements as a 
Teachek. — Filial Disobedience. — Kesults.— His Eeflections. 

ABOUT this period of his life an application was made by 
a gentleman of Camden, S. C, Dr. Eobert Alexander, 
addressed to Dr. Hall, requesting him to procure an usher 
for the academy which had been estabhshed at that place 
shortly after the close of the revolutionary war. Dr. Alex- 
ander was an active trustee of the academy, and having 
heard a favorable report of " Clio's Nursery," he expressed 
a special preference for some one of the best Hnguists who 
had been educated at that school. Dr. Hall immediately 
applied to the father of Moses Waddel, expressing a desire 
that he would accept the position for his son, and permit him 
to go and teach in Camden. The proposal was very gratify- 
ing to the youth himself, and he was very anxious to go; 
but the father, although grateful to his pastor for the kind- 
ness of this proposition, and fully appreciating the compli- 
ment implied in it, could not consent to his going. His 
only ground of objection was the extreme youth and inex- 
perience of his son. He could not consider it his duty as a 
parent to expose his morals at that indiscreet age to the 
temptations of a town life and among entire strangers. In 
later years, and after maturer judgment, formed upon 
greater experience and more widely-extended observation, 
the son has often been heard to remark that his father in 
that decision had evinced a degree of parental discretion 
and sound sense for which he felt bound to be thankful to 
him, under God, to the end of his life. 

30 



Appointment to Teach. 31 

In the month of July, 1784, Moses completed his four- 
teenth year. It was only a short time after this that some 
gentlemen in "a neighborhood at a distance of some fifteen 
miles from the residence of his father desired to establish a 
school in that locality, at which the Latin language could be 
taught. Having learned that he was considered capable of 
teaching it, they requested his father to allow him to take 
charge of such a school, consisting of English scholars 
mainty, with a few pursuing the study of Latin. To this he 
consented, and the arrangement was accordingly made. 

It will not be without interest to the reader to note the 
fact here, that the stipulated remuneration for services ren- 
dered by him consisted of his board and the sum of seventy 
dollars per annum, inasmuch as it was the compensation of 
a teacher who, in his subsequent career, received for many 
years an annual income of thousands. In this, his first field 
of educational work, he had seven pupils studying Latin, and 
twenty or more in the ordinary English branches. The 
location of this school was near a considerable stream, called 
"Hunting Creek," in the northeastern part of what is now 
called Iredell count}^ N. C. In his year's work he gave 
great satisfaction, and was regarded as w^onderf ully success- 
ful. Unfortunately he lost his health, and was compelled to 
abandon the care and superintendence of the school and 
return to his father's house to recuperate. 

On his recovery he resumed his occupation, not, however, 
in the same neighborhood, but first nearer home and then 
in an adjacent settlement, and thus he was chieily employed 
in teaching until the latter part of the year 1786, when he 
went on a prospective tour to Green county, Ga., then a 
newly-settled frontier county. Here he soon engaged in his 
teaching work again, but, in consequence of Indian troubles 
on this frontier, he relinquished his school in the summer 
and returned to North Carohna to visit his friends. Here 
he remained about two months, but became very anxious to 



32 Moses AVaddel, D. D. 

return to Georgia. As his parents had decided to remove 
in the autumn of that year to Georgia, then considered the 
land of agricultural promise, they were very desirous that 
he should remain with them until they should be ready to 
remove and accompany them on their journey. With thi& 
request, so entirely reasonable, he was altogether unwilling 
to comply, and very undutifuUy departed for Georgia a 
month in advance of his father and family. This was the 
first material point in which he had ever ventured to disobey 
them or to counteract their wishes. The consequences re- 
sulting to him were such as might have been expected from 
an act of filial disobedience. 

On his arrival in Georgia he found that the people among 
whom he had resided and taught had been forced to 
abandon their habitations, and to take refuge in forts, from 
the cruelties of the Indians, who had crossed the Oconee 
river, burned Greensborough, and murdered several persons 
farther within the interior of the country. After remaining 
unemployed about a month he visited Augusta to seek em- 
ployment, and, after being tantalized four weeks with the 
hope of being employed as an assistant in the Richmond 
Academy, he left the the place and returned to Green 
county. Here he found his parents and the family safely 
arrived and all fears of further incursions of the savages en- 
tirely subsided. His experience from the time of his leav- 
ing his parents in a disobedient manner until his meeting 
with them in their new home having yielded him neither 
much peace of mind nor any personal success, he accepted 
it as the frown of Providence and as a gentle chastisement, 
warning him against acting contrary to the advice of his 
parents in future. His resolution was then formed to that 
effect and from it he never again deviated during their lives. 



CHAPTEE III. 

Besumes Teaching. ^Attendance on Dancing Parties. — Wavering 
Resolutions. — Finae Decision. — Eeligious Impressions. Pub- 
lic Profession of Religion. 

IN 1788, in the same part of the country, he commenced 
another school. The state of morals there among- the 
young men was by no means such as to exert a favorable in- 
fluence upon him. He had been thrown into association 
with them and had been exposed to their society during the 
previous years from the time of his first departure from his 
father's house, and he found himself now surrounded by this 
state of society. In addition to this fact, it is stated that in 
that neighborhood there had been no preaching regularly 
enjoyed for a length of time. The young- 2:)eople were fond 
of dancing parties, which were kept up w^eekly, and to these 
entertainments he was always sure of an invitation, because 
he was pursuing the occupation of a man w'hile he was very 
young, and was supposed, from his mode of occupation, to 
possess the attributes of one far in advance of his age. He 
thus acquired a fondness for that amusement, which he in- 
dulged until he, from his own reflections, began to doubt the 
innocence of dancing as an amusement, and often, after hav- 
ing attended one of these meetings, his thoughts were so 
unpleasant as to lead him to resolve that this should be the 
last one of the kind he should ever attend. He would dis- 
close his views to these young people, and state to them that 
they need never to invite him again to such meetings. But 
he found, in his own experience, that unrenewed human 
nature was weak indeed, as, on a repetition of the tempta- 
tion, he had no power of resistance. Such was the vacil- 
3 33 



34 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

lating state of his mind until, by a change of his place of 
board to the pious home of a gentleman in the same neigh- 
borhood, and by his entering upon a nightly review of his 
classical studies, Avhich he was enabled rigidly to continue, 
he overcame the fondness for this amusement, and found, to 
his great satisfaction, that he had courage to decline all 
further invitations extended to him. 

The arrival and frequent preaching of several distin- 
guished ministers of the gospel in that region of country 
during the year resulted in the excitement of a considerable 
interest in religion. By frequent interviews with Rev. Mr. 
Thacher, one of these ministers, sent as a missionary to that 
part of Georgia from Orange Presbytery, North Carolina, 
and by attendance on his preaching and that of others of 
different denominations, the mind of the young teacher was 
more and more impressed with the sense of the necessity 
and importance of his soul's interests. From this time he 
devoted most of his leisure hours, mornings and evenings, 
to reading the Scriptures, and books of religious character 
treating of experimental religion. His attention to secret 
prayer at stated times became regular, and his serious im- 
j^ressions deej^ened and his religious exercises increased. 
Thus he continued in his habits of thought and action until 
a certain Fast day in 1789, which was observed by him, 
when the plan of salvation, he behoved, was suddenly re- 
pealed to his mind more clearly than ever before. He 
believed that God was as willing to save him as he himself 
was to be saved through Jesus Christ. He also felt a will- 
ingness to bow to the sceptre of divine grace, and, with 
humble gratitude and resignation, to embrace, receive, and 
rest upon the Saviour for the whole of his salvation. At the 
church of Bethany, about the middle of April, 1789, an ap- 
pointment for administration of the sacrament of the Lord's 
supper was filled by the preacher in charge, and feehng 
bound, both by duty and inclination, to attach himself by an 



His Fiest Communion. 35 

open profession, he presented himself before the session, 
and, after the usual examination and other steps prepara- 
tory to his reception had been conducted satisfactorily, he 
was admitted a member of the church. On the morning of 
the communion he realized unusual comfort in the prospect 
of the duty he was about to discharge and the privilege he 
•was hoping to enjoy. The communion sermon was preached, 
and the ordinance was explained. The sacred table was 
spread and surrounded by communicants, and among them 
Moses Waddel took his seat for the first time. 

A state of mind ensued which he could never afterwards 
fully describe. Before he approached the communion table 
he had expected to experience the evidences of his Saviour's 
love and the enrapturing tokens of God's favor in degree far 
superior to any feeling ever before experienced by him, 
when lo ! during the time of his sitting there he could see 
nothing but bread and wine, and felt nothing but an aw^ful 
and comfortless sense of his own unworthiness to occupy a 
seat at that holy feast of love. 



CHAPTEE lY. 

Spiritual Conflicts. — Tenderness or Conscience. — Methods of Re- 
lief Adopted. — Final Victory. 

FEOM this time and for months afterwards Moses Wad- 
del was the victim of great mental distress and spirit- 
ual gloom, which, with occasional relief, at last increased to 
such a degree as to reduce him almost to despair. In this 
state of mind he attended another communion meeting at 
Bethany church, in Green county. There he met with an 
elderly gentleman from a church in Wilkes county, who had 
ridden, on purpose to attend this meeting, some twenty or 
twenty-five miles. This gentleman was Mr. Kobert Cres- 
well, and, although not a preacher, he was a man of extraor- 
dinary scriptural knowledge and experience. AVith this 
gentleman he engaged, as was natural in his state of mind, 
in a conversation with perfect freedom upon the subject of 
experimental religion. The result was that Moses Waddel 
decided to spend the evening and night with him ; and as 
the greater part of the time was occupied in talking on prac- 
tical religion, he found his views greatly enlarged and en- 
lightened by this interview, and from Mr. Creswell's kind 
and pious counsel he hoped that he had derived great en- 
couragement and satisfaction. 

Subsequently he enjoyed the same privilege of personal 
association with Mr. Creswell and others, and found addi- 
tional comfort from their conversation. After this, continu- 
ing his occupation in school in the neighborhood of Bethany 
church, of which he was a member, he so fully shared the 
confidence of all who knew him that he was occasionally 
asked to lead in family worship and in public prayer. This 

36 



His Tenderness of Conscience. 37 

led to a resolution adopted by tlie minister and the clmrcli 
session, that the congregation should assemble on vacant 
Sabbaths, and that he should be invited to lead in singing, 
prayer, and reading a sermon by some approved orthodox 
divine, to which he gave his assent, and the practice con- 
tinued for some length of time. It was, however, on the 
evening of a certain day which had been employed in this 
manner that he engaged in a train of self-examination, 
which embodied a series of questions and reflections of the 
following nature: 

" I have made a profession of rehgion, and I have been 
turning my attention to this subject for a year or more past. 
I have'^read my Bible and works of pious authors consider- 
ably. My external conduct, I know, is greatly altered. I 
have conducted myself in a much more serious and orderly 
manner than formerly. I have reason to believe that my 
acquaintances do generally regard me as a Christian. But 
do I know that I am one? Is it true that I have been horn 
ugain. and that I am a child of God f How do I know but 
that these very people who have seen me to-day m the 
church, and heard me pray and sing and read, may yet see 
me in lieU, and upbraid me with hyprocrisy for this day's 

work?" 

These thoughts made a most solemn and awful impres- 
sion on his mind, and excited a determination that he 
would ''not give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eye- 
lids" until he should obtain an assurance that he was a 
child of God and a real Christian. 

Now began a time of spiritual gloom and distress never 
before experienced by him, and the intensity of which has 
rarelv had its parallel in the experience of others. He lost 
his sleep and appetite, spent his nights in reading Gods 
word and poring over Doddridge's Eise and Progress 
confining his attention to those parts of the book treat- 
ino- of the exercises of the convicted sinner and avoid- 



38 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

ing the parts wliicli treat of tlie character and exercises 
of the true Christian, as he felt no assurance that he 
was a child of God, and therefore he thought that those 
more advanced parts of the book were not for him to 
claim as apj^licable to his case. This state of mind in- 
creased in its depth of suffering until it resulted in render- 
ing him supremely wretched. His conscience lost its calm- 
ness of judgment, and, feeling that he was so ungrateful, 
guilty, and utterly unworthy in the sight of God, he became 
afraid to quench his thirst as being too great a blessing for 
such a sinner, and even carried his tenderness of conscience 
to the point of doubting his authority to administer to his 
pupils who transgressed any penalty of their offences, since 
he would raise the question at once, "If God, your great 
Master, should punish you for your faults, what would be- 
come of you?" Indeed, such was the view of the depravity 
of his whole nature at that period that he regarded himself 
a mere compound of unbelief, pride, and hyprocrisy, and this, 
too, while most of his time was occupied in reading the 
Scriptures and books of practical piety and in secret 
prayer. 

Not only was he thus exercised in self-condemnation, but 
about this very period he was assailed by the fiery darts of 
the wicked one. He was tempted to doubt the existence of 
God, the truth of the Bible, or that there is any heaven, 
hell, or devil. This state of mental exercise continued for 
months, without inducing any relaxation of the dut}^ of secret 
prayer. 

An incident is related of his experience in his school which 
merits notice. It seems that, although he had been a pro- 
fessing Christian for a length of time, he had never assumed 
courage to open and close his school with prayer, although 
his mind had for some time been impressed with the con- 
viction that he ought to do this daily to secure the blessing 
of God. On occasion of a very frightful thunder-storm 



His Spiritual Conflict. 39 

which came on diu'ing school hours, not only were the pupils 
of the school struck with the most dreadful terror by the 
vivid glare of the hghtning and the crashing sound of the 
thunder, but it is believed that none of them were so horror- 
stricken as their self-condemned instructor. During the 
raging of the storm he did not know, but felt awful ax^xDre- 
hensions that the next flash of lightning would be the mes- 
senger of an angiy God to send him to hell. Many solemn 
ejaculations of prayer went up, and many a silent resolution 
was formed, that if God w^ould spare his hfe he would 
neglect this duty no longer. But the storm passed, and he 
was spared, yet his resolution was broken, and, through 
sinful shame and fear of man, the school was dismissed, 
without prayer, as it had been formerly. A repetition of 
the storm occurred, even more terrific than the first, on the 
next afternoon. Fearful were the lashes of his violated con- 
science at the time, and again he prayed, and promised that- 
if God would withhold the visitation of His just and right- 
eous wrath, and spare him again, he would no more neglect 
this duty of prayer at opening and closing his school. Once 
more God heard him and spared his life, whereupon, at the 
subsidence of the storm, he was enabled to address his 
lately- affrighted pupils as foUows: "We have been pre- 
served this afternoon from great danger. AVe ought to 
thank God for His goodness ; therefore let us pray." Thus 
this school was dismissed that afternoon with prayer, and 
ever afterward, not only this school, but every institution 
with which he was connected during his Hfe, was opened 
and closed with prayer. 

The mental distress, however, continued to give him such 
anxiety as to render him unfit for the discharge of his daily 
duty. So he determined to suspend the exercises of the 
school for a few days, in order that he might visit some ex- 
perienced Christian who could furnish him the advice he so 
greatly needed. This he did accordingly, and paid a visit 



40 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

to his old friends, Mr. Creswell and others; and having 
conferred freely with them, he felt that he had gained light 
on his path, and was enabled to engage in his duties with 
composure and comfort, to which he had long been a 
stranger. 

Still he struggled on, in alternate light and shadow, until^ 
at a communion meeting held by Bev. Mr. Thatcher in 
Bethany chui'ch, he was at last led into "the light and lib- 
erty of the gospel," under the instrumentality of this able 
and godly minister, who in a sermon on Romans v. 6, made 
the j)lan of salvation and the Saviour's love and grace clearer 
and more comforting to his view than ever he had before 
experienced. He was enabled to hope and feel " at peace 
with God, the world, and himself," and from this time he 
began to indulge " a good hope, through grace," that he had 
"passed from death unto life," and was assured of his par- 
don, peace, and reconciliation w^ith God through Jesus 
Christ. 



CHAPTER V. 

Resolution to Enter the ]\Iinistky and to Complete the PEr^LTvir- 
NAEY Education. — Enters Hampden-Sidney College. — Candi- 
date Under Care of Presbytery op Hanover. — Licensure and 
Dismissal to the Presbytery of South Carolina. 

fJlROM that day his mind was greatly exercised in regard 
P to the solemn subject of the gospel ministry. Con- 
Tinced that he had received a divine call to this great work, 
he was equally impressed with the conviction of his own 
want of the necessary mental training and the acquisition 
of additional literary education, in order to the proj^er dis- 
charge of the high and holy functions of that exalted call- 
ing. There was another consideration suggested to his 
mind at the same time, and that was that he must use 
every proper method to acquire the means whereby he 
might defray the expenses of a collegiate education. It is 
to be borne in mind that at that time and in that new set- 
tlement there had never been established such benevolent 
institutions among the churches as Boards or Committees of 
Ministerial Education, or Education Societies to train poor 
and promising candidates for the ministry. He seems not 
to have thought of such a thing as receiving assistance from 
any outside source; so he resumed teaching, and thus, by 
his own efforts and God's blessing, he succeeded in this ob- 
ject, and found himself in possession of the required funds. 
At that early period he knew of no institution of learning 
in the Carolinas or Georgia which held out to him induce- 
ments of the proper kind to attract his interest. Accord- 
ingly he paid a visit to a venerable and valued friend, Eev. 
John Springer, at Cambridge (formerly called Ninety-six), in 
Abbeville District, South Carolina. This minister had inspired 

41 



42 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

into all the churches where he had become known the full- 
est confidence in his i^iety as a Christian and his character 
as a scholar and a gentleman. To him, therefore, he ap- 
plied for advice as to the college he would recommend him 
to attend in order to complete his literary studies. Mr. 
Springer unhesitatingly advised him to prepare himself at 
once for the College of Hampden-Sidney, in Prince Edward 
county, Va. This institution, after its founding and organi- 
zation, had enjoyed the privilege and advantage of the pre- 
sidency, first, of Rev. Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith, after- 
wards president for many years of the College of New Jer- 
sey. He was succeeded by his brother, Rev. John B. Smith, 
who presided over the College for several years with great 
credit to himself and advantage to the public, and was after- 
wards president of Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., and 
died of yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1799. 

After having prepared himself for this college, Moses 
Waddel left his home in Green county, Ga., for a long ride 
on horseback to the distant point in Virginia at which some 
of his 3'ears were to be spent, and where he should lay the 
foundation of his future professional and social life. Hav- 
ing arrived in Prince Edward county, in September, 1790, 
his first care w^as to apply himself to the study of certain 
branches necessary to his admission into the senior class of 
Hampden-Sidney College. This being done, he entered the 
senior class on the 3d of January, 1791. The institution 
was under the presidency of Rev. Drury Lacy at that time, 
and the studies of Moses Waddel were pursued under him 
until the time of his graduation, on the 29th of September, 
1791, having been associated during this time with the fol- 
lowing as classmates, who afterwards became very j)romi- 
nent and useful men, viz. : Rev. John McKemie Wilson,. 
D. D., of North Carolina; Dr. James Jones, of Dinwiddle, 
repeatedly a member of Congress, and Hon. George ]\L 
Bibb, judge, and senator from Kentucky. 



He is Licensed to Preach. 43 

About two months previous to his graduation he attended 
the meeting of the Presbytery of Hanover, in Upper Con- 
cord church, in Campbell county, Va., and presented him- 
self to the Presbytery as a candidate for the gospel min- 
istry; was examined, in comptuiy with Mr. AYilliam Calhoun 
and Mr. Samuel Brown, on the subjects usual on such occa- 
sions. The examinations of these three were all sustained, 
and the}^ were all admitted under care of the Presbytery on 
August 1, 1791. The Presbytery adjourned, to meet again 
on October 28th ensuing, at which time he was ordered to 
present as his first parts of trial an essay on the freedom of 
the human wdll, and a Presbyterial exercise on Phil. ii. 12, 13, 
if he could possibly j)repare these exercises. As these ap- 
pointments were made nearly two months before commence- 
ment, and during that time nearly all his attention would 
be occupied with the exercises necessary to be prepared for 
such public occasions, he found that by close application 
during the vacation wdiich ensued after the Commencement 
he was enabled to prej^are only the essay. This w^as pre- 
sented at the meeting of Presbytery, on October 28th, read, 
and approved, and an additional part of his trial for licen- 
sure w^as assigned him, being a lecture on 1 Pet., iv. 1-7, to 
be presented at the spring meeting of Presbytery in May 
next after this meeting. Accordingly, his trials having all 
been sustained, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Han- 
over on May 11, 1792. The record of the stated clerk on 
the minutes is that on the 6th of October, 1792, he wa» 
" dismissed at disc7^etio7i ; " the explanation of this phrase- 
ology being, doubtless, that as he was uncertain as to his 
future location, the Presbytery could not do otherwise. 
The next fact related of the subject of this narrative is that, 
on the 11th of April, 1793, he was received by the Presl)y- 
tery of South Carolina as a licentiate, bearing letters of dis- 
mission from the Presbytery of Hanover. 



CHAPTER YI. 

Removal. — Fikst and Second Marriages. — Fikst and Second Loca- 
tions. — Pupils. — Calhoun. — Ckawfokd. 

AFTER his licensure lie remained in Virginia for some 
montlis, and returned to South Carolina, making his 
temporary home in the family of Mr. Thomas Legare, a 
devout elder of the church. In September, 1793, being still 
a licentiate under care of the Presbytery of South Carolina, 
he was appointed to visit and preach to the people on James 
Island, John's Island, Wadmalaw, and Dorchester, once at 
each point. The remainder of his time he s]3ent in Georgia, 
as the jurisdiction of the Presbytery covered that part of the 
State also. In April, 1794, at a meeting of Presbytery, the 
Carmel church, in Georgia, forwarded a call for one half of 
his time, which he accepted. In this church, at a special 
meeting of Presbytery in June following, he was solemnly 
ordained to the full work of the gospel ministry. Rev. Br. 
Cummins, wdio had been one of his teachers at "Clio's 
Nursery," in North Carolina, preached on that occasion the 
ordination sermon. 

Not long after this, perhaps in 1794, he became satisfied, 
from his experience and observation of the destitutions of 
the surrounding countiy, that he could extend his useful- 
ness by adding to his ministerial services the important and 
useful occupation of teaching. He selected, as the location 
of the school, a country place about two miles east of the 
village of Appling, which was the county site of Columbia 
county, Ga. At this place he continued to teach for several 
years, and then, for some reason, he decided that it would 
be best to remove to the village. Among the pupils of this 



Preaches at the Calhoun Settlement. 45 

school was the celebrated William H. Crawford, afterwards 
one of Georgia's most distinguished statesmen, and who 
filled some of the most important positions in the service of 
the national government. Mr. Crawford, it should be 
stated, was an assistant to Mr. "Waddel in this school ; and 
it is a well-known fact that in this school, under the direct 
instruction of Mr. Waddel, he received the whole of his 
scholastic training, never having attended an}'- other institu- 
tion of learning subsequently. W^hile residing at this place 
the young licentiate missionary filled an appointment to 
preach beyond the Savannah river, in Abbeville district. 
South Carolina, in a neighborhood known then, and even 
now, as the "Calhoun Settlement," so called from the fact 
that the family of Calhouns, descendants of Scotch-Irish 
parentage, finding themselves compelled to remove from 
their second settlement in Virginia on account of the incur- 
sions of the Indians consequent upon Braddock's defeat, 
resolved to turn their course southward ; and in 1756 they 
selected the upper part of South Carolina, near the Savan- 
nah river, in Abbeville district, and there they established 
what became known ever afterwards as " Calhoun Settle- 
ment." This settlement, although beset with many dangers 
and difficulties, continued to grow in many important 
respects, and at the time of Rev. Mr. Waddel's visit it was a 
strong Presbyterian region, with a place for preaching 
known as Brewer's school-house. Patrick Calhoun (father 
of John C. Calhoun) was the head of the settlement and an 
elder of the church. After the preaching of the young 
minister (then in the twenty-fifth year of his age), Mr. Cal- 
houn invited him to his house, and he accepted the invita- 
tion and spent the night very agreeably with the family. 
He here met for the first time the lady who afterwards 
became his first wife, Miss Catherine Calhoun, the only 
daughter of Mr. Patrick Calhoun. She is described as hav- 
ing been a very attractive lady, and it seems the young 



46 MosE3 Waddel, D. D. 

minister was at once struck with admiration of her many- 
charming c[uahties. Not long after this visit, in the follow- 
ing year, 1795, he was married to her while still residing in 
Columbia county, Ga. She survived the marriage but little 
more than a year, and she left an infant daughter, who soon 
.followed the mother. John C. Calhoun, her young brother, 
had been placed under the care of Mr. Waddel, to prosecute 
his education. He remained with him altogether about two 
years, during which time he was prepared for the junior 
class in Yale College, and in due course of time he graduated 
there with highest distinction. Upon the death of his wife 
and her father Mr. Waddel suspended the active operations 
of his teaching for several years. But as he surveyed the 
destitutions of the country around him, demanding laborers 
in the plenteous harvest, he felt that he was under a press- 
ing call from the Master to go to work in His vineyard. 
Under the pressure of such influences he gave himself to 
the active work of the ministry, as an evangelist in the wide 
field extending all around him. It was just at this time 
that, after he had been again appointed by the Presbytery 
of South Carolina to preach at John's Island and Wad- 
malaw, we learn from the History of the Presbyterian 
Church in South Carolina, by Dr. Howe, that " on Novem- 
ber 3, 1796, the Synod of the Carolinas separated the terri- 
tory southwest of the Savannah river, and detached the Eev. 
John Newton, Eev. John Springer, Eev. Eobert M. Cun- 
ningham, Eev. Moses Waddel, and Eev. William Mont- 
gomery, from the Presbytery of South Carolina. These 
brethren, meeting at Liberty church (now AVoodstock) on 
the 16th of March, 1797, under the order of Synod, held the 
first meeting of Hopewell Presbytery. Eev. Mr. Springer 
was elected moderator and Eev. Mr. W^addel clerk." 
— -^r. Waddel resided in Columbia county, Ga., during the 
remaining years of that century. In 1801 he removed to 
the village of Vienna, Abbeville District, S. C, where he 



Removed to Vienna. 47 

opened a school again, continuing his labors as a minister 
at the same time. In addition to this village there were in 
existence, and in quite a flourishing condition of commer- 
cial activity, two others in the same neighborhood, all 
within a circle of about one mile in extent. These were Pe- 
tersburg, on the point of land made by the confluence of 
the Savannah and Broad rivers; Lisbon, on the west bank 
of the Broad, while Vienna stood upon the high hill, mak- 
ing up from the Savannah river on the east side. These 
three small towns are easily wdthin the writer's recollection 
brought into review at the time when they all enjoyed a 
very considerable degree of prosperity in a business paint 
of view, and the population was to some extent refined and 
intelligent. A visit to the spot once occupied by these 
towns at a later period of his life filled him with melancholy 
emotions, as all that once made them so floui'ishing and 
pleasant is obliterated by the resistless sweep of time and 
-change, and buried by desolation and ruin. Yet it was to 
Vienna, one of these nov3 '^biti'ied cities," that, in the je&r 
1801, Mr. AVaddel removed, and established himself as a 
ieacher and preacher. The prosperity of these towns, and 
their life and active rivalry in competition for the patronage 
•of the neighboring country around them, and the wealth 
and refinement of the population, imparted to the school the 
fair prospect of satisfactory success. 

It is perhaps best, just at this point, that we retrace the 
history somewhat, in order to bring forward the narrative 
of certain events of much interest in the life of the subject 
■of this memoir which have thus far been passed over in si- 
lence on account of the necessity of recording important 
pubhc events. In this way all the parts of this record may 
be made to move on more evenly and connectedly in the future. 
The reader may j^ossibly remember that Mr. "SVaddel had 
spent several years in Virginia, beginning with the year 
1790, when he arrived in Prince Edward county, at Hamp- 
den Sidney College, and ending in 1793, during which time 



48 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

he graduated, was received under care of Presbyter}^ of 
Hanover, and licensed. It was during these j^ears that he 
formed the acquaintance of a joung lady — Miss Eliza Wood-" 
son Pleasants — who was visiting friends in Prince Edward 
county near the college. In due time an attachment grew 
up between them, and perhaps an engagement was en- 
tered into. But when the case came before the parents 
they declined to consent to the j)i'oposal, solely upon 
the ground that the home of the young licentiate was 
located in the remote wilds of the State of Georgia, which 
was then considered a frontier State, and exposed to the in- 
cursions of the Indians. They were unwilling that their 
daughter should encounter the perils of such a residence. 
The affair was terminated then and there, as such a thing 
as filial disobedience formed no part of the domestic train- 
ing of the young people of that country at that time. They 
parted, and within the ensuing years from 1793 to 1800 the 
marriage of Mr. Waddel to Miss Calhoun, and all the events 
of this history in his public and j^rivate life as they occurred, 
have been related in previous pages. He remained a 
widower for about four years, when, having learned that 
Miss Pleasants was stiU unmarried, he renewed his suit. 
As by this time all obstacles to their miion had been re- 
moved providentially, they were united in marriage in the 
year 1800. After his second marriage they resided in 
Georgia until 1801, when, as already recorded, he removed 
to Vienna, in South Carolina. 

There he continued about four years, teaching and jDreach- 
ing, and while there still a petition for his services as a 
preacher was presented to the Presbytery of South Carolina 
by Hopewell church, in Abbeville District, which Presbytery 
granted. He was at that time a member of the Presbytery 
of Hopewell, but on the 7th of Aj^ril, 1802, he was received 
as a member of the South Carolina Presbytery, and Hope- 
well church was gratified by enjoying his ministerial services 



CHAPTER ^T:L 

"WillinctTon Academy. — BrrrLDiNG. — Character of the Institution. 

Methods of Instruction and Discipline. 

IN 1804 he removed from Vienna to Willington, a country- 
residence which he had acquired, distant about six miles 
south of Vienna. Here he laid the foundation of that acad- 
emy which was destined to become so celebrated as the 
training- place of so many eminently useful men, distm- 
guished in all professions and pursuits in life, in South Caro- 
lina and Georgia. Here begins the history of education in. 
connection with his labors as an educator in South Carolina, 
The location was on a high and healthful ridge opening up 
from the Savannah river. The population was composed of 
the Scotch- Irish and the noble and warm-hearted Huguenots 
who had fled from France to escape persecution, and who 
had formed a settlement in this neighborhood, where they 
could worshij) God according to the dictates of an enlight- 
ened conscience, "with none to molest or to make them 
afraid." These were his neighbors and his friends and 
patrons. They were high-toned Calvinistic Presbyterians, 
both the Scotch-Irish and the French Huguenots. 

No more accurate and rehable description can be in'e- 
sented of this school in its earlier history than that which is^ 
found in Volume II. of the History of South Carolina, by 
Dr David Ramsay, of Charleston. The reliableness of this 
description will be assured by the fact that Dr. E^msay 
wrote from personal knowledge, as he had patronized the 
academy' by sending two sons to be taught and trained by 
Dr. Waddel. The entire passage, which fills pp. 369-371 of 
the second volume of the History, is as follows : 
4 49 



50 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

"Besides what lias been done by the State and by reli- 
gious sects and private societies for the advancement of 
learning and the diffusion of religious knowledge among the 
inhabitants, there are several private schools, both in Charles- 
ton and the country, for teaching classical and mathematical 
learning. Among these, one, under the care of the Eev. Dr. 
Waddel, of Abbeville District, deserves particular notice. In 
it from seventy to eighty students* are instructed in the 
Latin, Greek, and French languages, and in such of the 
arts and sciences as are necessary to prepare a candidate for 
admission into the higher classes of the Northern Colleges. 
The school-house is a plain log building in the midst of the 
woods, in a high and healthy country, and too small to 
accommodate all the scholars in the hours of study. To 
obviate this inconvenience, they are permitted and encouraged 
to build huts in the vicinity. These are the rough carpentry 
of the pupils, or constructed by workmen for about four dol- 
lars. In these, when the weather is cold, and under the 
trees when it is warm, the different classes study. To the 
common school or recitation room they instantly repair 
when called for, by the name of the Homer, the Xenophon, 
the Cicero, the Horace, or Virgil class, or by the name of 
the author whose writings they are reading. In a moment 
they appear before their preceptor, and, with order and de- 
corum, recite their lessons ; are critically examined in gram- 
mar and syntax, the construction of sentences, the formation 
of verbs, the antiquities of Greece and Rome, the history 
and geography of the ancients, illustrative of the author 
whose works they recite ; and are taught to relish his beau- 
ties and to enter into his spirit. Thus class succeeds to 
class, without the formality of definite hours for study or 
recreation, tiU all have recited. In the presence of the stu- 
dents assembled a solemn and appropriate prayer, imploring 
the Eternal in their behalf, begins and ends the exercises of 

* The number grew afterwards to 180. 



WiLLiNGTON Academy. 51 

each day. In this manner the classics are taught one hun- 
dred and ninety miles from the sea coast. The glowing 
periods of Cicero are read and admired. The melody and 
majesty of Homer delight the ear and charm the under- 
standing in the very spot and under the identical trees 
which, sixty years ago, resounded with the war-whoop and 
horrid yellings of savage Indians. 

" Of the large number that attend this school nine in ten 
are as studious as their health will permit, and as orderly in 
their conduct as their friends could wish. Far removed 
from the dissipation of cities, and among sober, industrious, 
and religious people, they must be studious, or lose all 
character, and be pointed at by the finger of scorn. If dis- 
posed to be idle or vicious, they cannot be so otherwise than 
by themselves ; for the place will not furnish them with 
associates. Monitors are aj^pointed to superintend each 
sub- division of the students; and such as transgress the 
rules of the school are reported once in every week. Over 
them a court is held. They are allowed to justify or ex- 
tenuate. A summary decision is made. Though corjooral 
punishment is not excluded, it is rarely inflicted. The dis- 
cipline of the school respects the pride of youth, and is 
chiefiy calculated to repress irregular conduct by attaching 
to it shame and dishonor. The sagacious preceptor quickly 
finds out the temper and disposition of each student, and is 
the first to discover aberrations from the straight line of 
propriety. By ni]Dping mischief in the bud, lie prevents its 
coming to any serious height. By patience in teaching and 
minutely explaining what is difficult, he secures the affec- 
tions of his pupils and smooths their labors ; while at the 
same time judicious praise rouses ambition and kindles in 
their breasts an ardent love for improvement and an eager- 
ness to deserve and gain applause." 

The History from which the above extract is made is now 
almost out of i^rint, or, if extant, can be found only in some 



52 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

of the public libraries of the State, or in the jDOSsession of 
some of the older residents of South Carolina. The copy 
from which the foregoing extract is taken is a handsomely- 
bound copy, in two volumes, presented to Dr. Waddel by 
the author, Dr. Ramsay, himself, published in 1809. 



I 



i 

I 

i' 



CHAPTER YIII. 

Improvement in the Building. — Organization of the Church. Re- 

vivAii IN THE Academy and Neighborhood and Its Kesults. 

THE unexampled prosperity of the academy, and the in- 
crease in the j^opulation of the neighborhood, rendered 
it a necessity, in the judgment of all concerned, that larger 
accommodations should be provided both for the academy 
and the congregation. Accordingly an arrangement was 
entered into between the leading citizens of the neighbor- 
hood and the trustees of the Vienna Academy, Vv^hereby the 
building was removed to AVillington, and converted into a 
most excellent and convenient house of worship and academy 
building, all under one roof. The y/riter readily recalls 
this establishment in memory, then the largest and most 
imposing structure that had up to that time ever stood l^efore 
his admiring vicAV. The building was composed of foiu' 
convenient rooms for recitation, and, in addition, a chapel, 
which latter room served the two-fold purpose of the jDlace 
of assembly for instructors and students for morning and 
evening worship and for divine service on the Sabbath. 

In the year 1809 the congregation worshipping in this 
Jiouse was regularly organized as a Presbyterian church. 
Three of the male members were chosen by the people to 
the office of ruling elder, and the result manifested the wis- 
dom of their selection. The French descendants of the 
Huguenots were represented in this session by Pierre Gi- 
bert, a model Christian man of extensive influence; the 
Scotch-Irish by William Noble, long known and loved in the 
surrounding country, and Moses W, Dobbins, one of the 
former students of the academy, who had taught also as an 

53 



54 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

assistant under Dr. Waddel. This gentleman afterwards 
became one of the teachers in the University Grammar 
School at Athens, Ga. 

But it is a pleasing fact of great interest and importance 
to the history of the Willington Academy to notice that 
about this time it pleased God to manifest his gracious ap- 
proval of the work of the church and academy by the out- 
pouring of his Spirit and grr.ce upon the students and the 
neighborhood. The result of this revival was the hopeful 
conversion of not a few of the students, a goodly proportion 
of whom became distinguished for eminent usefulness in the 
ministry. Others, who never became ministers of the gos- 
pel, but were j^ious and devoted members of the church, 
dated their first religious impressions from that period. In 
a communication prepared by Dr. AVaddel himself, and pub- 
lished in a periodical w^ell known at that time as the Panop- 
list, he states that nearly half the students then m attend- 
ance were under deep conviction, and more than twenty of 
the number were hopefully converted. 

It may be a matter of some interest to state that not 
only then, but subsequently, some of the prominent minis- 
ters known in the south and southwest were students of 
"Willington Academy, or under his instruction as "students 
of divinity." These were not all from Presbyterian churches, 
but a few of them belonged to other denominations, reading 
theology under his direction. One at least, Eev. Daniel 
Campbell, was an Episcopalian, and another. Rev. John 
Wilson, w^as a Baptist, and these, with Presbyterian candi- 
dates, were associated with him either in the academy or in 
private instruction. 

Some of the results of this awakening, which are not of 
public record, were communicated to the writer long after 
the suspension of the active operations of Willington Acad- 
emy by one who was acquainted with the facts. The state- 
ment referred to gives evidence of the depth of the v/ork 



I 



Results of Revr^al. 55 

WTOU""lit 111 the sj)irit of some of the students ^ho were sub- 
jects of the revival. So deei^ly were they affected as to 
threaten at one time the loss of both physical and mental 
health. There were four especially thus operated upon, one 
of whom afterwards \vas an eminent, eloquent, and success- 
ful minister of the gospel, two others elders of high standing 
in the church, and the fourth a quiet, unassuming member 
of the church, all having been relieved of their depression. 
But the result upon one of the elders was that he became 
painfully and morbidly sensitive in his conscience. The 
fourth person mentioned became afterwards utterly ab- 
sorbed, apparently, in his devotional life, so as to render 
him absent-minded in company, his lips incessantly moving 
in secret (though inaudible) prayer. It is to be noted that 
all these persons were consistent Christians in all their lives,, 
notwithstanding these pecuharities These cases illustrate 
the nature and character of the revival that occurred at the 
period mentioned. It was the deep and earnest work of 
solemn presentations of divine truth from the pulpit. The 
conversion of the sinner was not set forth as a human, but 
a divine work. Should any regard this form of dealing with 
cinners as extreme and as beyond measure stern and forbid- 
ding (which is not admitted), surely it is far preferable to 
the opposite method of presenting the whole matter of sal- 
vation as a work of such facihty as to bring it into ridicule, 
and almost into contempt. 



CHAPTER IX. 

fukther notick of the government and dlscipi.ine of willington 
Academy. — Domestic History of De. Waddel and his Family, ^n^ 

IT is well 'known that within a few 3'ears past a theory has 
been growing in favor among prominent educators in 
some parts of our country that the student body should 
share with the Faculty in the government and discipline of 
"the institution. The experiment has been tried, to some 
■extent, in several colleges, and favorable reports of the suc- 
cess of the effort to reduce the theory to j^ractice have been 
published. It is too early in the history of this experiment 
to decide the result, and doubtless there may be found occa- 
sionally some friction in its actual working. But if it jDrove 
to be a success in these late days of greater freedom of ac- 
tion among the youth of the ''lising generation/' it will cer- 
tainly confirm Dr. Ramsay's judgment, as announced in the 
eulogistic statement of the character of Willington Acad- 
emy, wherein he attributes to Dr. Waddel great sagacity in 
his discernment of the best mode of government for stu- 
dents. The germ of this very principle of a division of 
responsibility between teacher and pupil was in actual exist- 
ence in that academy more than sixty years ago. In this co- 
operative system of government, while Dr. Waddel should 
hold the position of final arbiter in all cases brought up for 
trial in the academic court, a j ury of the peers of the accused 
■was alw^ays present, who were allowed to decide upon the 
guilt or innocence of the party on trial. The system of 
monitorial supervision to which Dr. Ramsay refers w^as not 
of the secret, detective class, but having been appointed by 
:lheir instructor for the various classes or sub-divisions of 

56 



Discipline at AVillington Academy. 57 

the school, the monitors were known publicly, and were ex- 
j)ected by the students themselves to report all violations of 
law. On every Monday the court was assembled, all the 
pu2:)ils being present. The tribunal was composed of the 
presiding teacher, the jury of five, the accused, and the wit- 
nesses. To every law was annexed a suitable penalty for 
infraction, varying in its extent with tho nature of the 
offence. After all the testimony had been heard, in case the 
^uilt of the accused was established, the jury rendered a 
Terdict in accordance with law. The penalty was then in- 
jlicted by the presiding teacher himself, and the court ad- 
journed. 

The writer recalls a scene of this kind related by Dr. 
"Waddel himself. He prefaced it by stating that at one time 
he experienced great difficulty in his efforts to break up a 
prevalent habit among the students of settling all personal 
disputes by fighting. On every successive Monday's court 
cases would be found upon the calendar, tried, and disposed 
of; yet the infliction of the penalty of ordinary corporal 
chastisement had failed to check the evil. He therefore an- 
nounced publicly that, in case this offence were repeated 
and reported at any future time, the aggressor should be 
sentenced "to take off his coat! " According^, at the next 
meeting of the court, a case of fighting was reported. The 
trial was conducted regularly through all the forms -pre- 
scribed by law, and the proof was made clear that the 
accused party was the aggressor. The order was then 
issued by Dr. Waddel to him to take off his coat ; but instead 
of promptly obeying, the student, rising frc^m his seat, ad- 
di-essed him as follows: "Dr. Waddel, my father never 
made me take off my coat, and I shall never take it off for 
any man ! " The order was issued a second and a third 
time, with the repetition, on the part of the student, of the 
same defiance. On the third issuance of the order, how- 
ever, the young hero was informed that if the coat was not 



58 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

removed hr himself, the Dr. would divest him of his coat 
with his own hands. Suiting the action to the word, he 
stepped toward the youth, who had repeated the si)eech 
entire; but when he perceived that the coat was doomed to 
come off, whether he w^onld or w^ould not, he added to the 
expression, '^I shall never take it off for any man" the 
words, " You, sir, excepted ! " This closed the unpleasant 
scene, and when the order was obeyed by the lad. Dr. Wad- 
del proceeded to chastise him with a few strokes of the rod 
iq)on the loicer limbs, as usual, never having* designed from 
the beginning to lay the rod upon the shoulders. The pen- 
alty of removing the outer garment was regarded as suffi- 
ciently severe, and the result w^as that no more fights 
occurred among the students. 

Other instances in evidence and illustration of his mode 
of discipline might be adduced, and they would all confirm 
a remark made by the historian, Dr. Eamsay: "The dis- 
cipline of the institution respects the pride of the j^outh, and 
is chiefly designed to repress irregular conduct by attaching 
to it shame and dishonor." 

It is perhaps proper at this time that the reader should 
be admitted to a view of the private history and the domes- 
tic life of Dr. Waddel. To the outside world, knowing him 
only as a public man, there could be but an imperfect ap- 
preciation of certain traits and elements of his real person- 
ahty, which could only be known in the privacy and retire- 
ment of his own family cii'cle. He was, no doubt, a repre- 
sentative of a class now almost, if not entirely, extinct. His 
views of right and wrong were sharply cut, and were drawn 
from and based upon a Bible standard entirely, and were 
deeply tinged with Scotch-Irish notions of rigidness to the 
letter. Futui'e generations, descendants of his former pupils, 
have the conception of him, handed down by tradition, as of 
a stern and rigid discii:)linarian ; but his own children know 
that the proper word to express that sternness is firtaness 



Discipline at Home. 59^ 

in tlie enforcement of what lie knew to be right ; for what- 
ever may have been the hght in which his course of home 
rule was regarded by his children, under the influence of 
the impatience of control natural to j^outh, it is the matured 
and deliberate opinion of the writer, formed in subsequent 
review of the circumstances, that all that was apparently so 
rigid in his discipline resulted from his great anxiety to train 
his household to obedience and to the abhorrence of evil. It 
did not deserve the name of unfeeling sternness so much as- 
wise firmness. In after years, when his life was graciously 
prolonged to witness the outcome of his system of family 
training in the respectability and usefulness of all his chil- 
dren, and the highly honorable positions attained by some 
of them, he manifested great enjoyment in their society, and 
maintained, by correspondence with them, the most imre- 
served interchange of thought. It is confidently added 
that, with all his adherence to strict government in his 
family, there never throbbed in human bosom a more kindly 
and tender heart. The rule thus truthfully described never 
lost its power to inspire reverence toward him, but it cer- 
tainly, in riper years, was softened into affectionate respect 
for him and confidential intercourse with him. 

Mrs. E. W. Waddel, who was the mother of all the chil- 
dren who survived him, presents in the record of her life a 
picture the reverse of all this in some important points, and 
yet cooperating harmoniously in all her husband's views of 
wise and proper government. Yet the contrast between the 
two was indeed striking. He, all firmness ; she, all mild- 
ness ; he, commanding obedience ; she, winning it by 
gentleness ; his course, while not forbidding, at the sama 
time not encouraging, familiarity; hers, always attracting 
her children to her as companions. This rare combination 
of opposite elements was doubtless designed by a kind 
Providence to constitute the best possil^le agency for estab- 
hshing such a system of family training as would tend most 



60 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

wisely to the formation of the character of children. Taken 
alone, the firm and strict rule of the father might have en- 
gendered discontent and aversion ; but the loving sway of 
the mother exerted a conservative power by its wise gentle- 
ness. On the contrary, the tenderness of this last method 
might have produced a disregard and forgetfulness of legiti- 
mate authority but for the exaction of implicit obedience on 
the part of the father. It is only necessary to state the 
fact-s very briefly respecting the children of these parents. 
They were six in number, four of whom were sons, and two 
daughters, viz. : James Pleasants, Isaac AVatts, William 
Woodson, Sarah Elizabeth, Mary Anna, and John Newton. 
They all survived their parents, and the last two were stiU 
living in 1891. 



n 



i 



CHAPTER X, 

Conferring of the Degree of D. D. — Foreigners Receiving In- 
struction From Him in English. — An Incident. — Style of Old- 
Fashioned Church Building. — Mode of Conducting the Music 
AND of Administering the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 

THE reputation of Dr. Waddel was acknowledged through- 
out the State, and in the year 1807 he Avas honored 
with the degree of Doctor of Divinit}^ by the College of 
South Carolina during the presidency of Dr. Maxcy. The 
writer remembers to have seen a small parchment diploma, 
on which was inscribed the fact that the degree had been 
conferred, and duly certified by the college authorities. 
This honor was not so easily obtained, and consequently not 
so cheap as it has become in the lapse of time. The insti- 
tutions which felt at that time justified in bestowing it were 
of the highest rank in the world of letters, and were far 
more cautious than many of them are in this age as to the 
individuals upon whom they should confer this honor. But 
in the case of Dr. Waddel there was excited no surprise 
that the South Carolina College should have honored him in 
this way. 

It is true, perhaps, as is generally supposed, that his 
name is more widely known and associated with the cause 
of education than with the ministry of the gospel; yet in 
the earliest years of his ministerial life he was much sought 
after, and he was greatly beloved by the more sohd and sub- 
stantial portions of his congregations, from the fact that he 
drew all his inspiration from the pure fountain of God's 
word, of which he was always a close student. There as- 
suredly never entered into his sermons, as an element, the 

61 



€2 Moses Vvaddel, D. D. 

sliglitest touch of sensationalism. His delivery was earnest 
and animated, but by no means boisterous or violent. His 
sermons were never written out in full. He always prepared 
skeletons on very small-sized leaves of paper and in a liand- 
writing so diminutive, and with certain hieroglyj^hics of his 
own adoption so obscure, as to be almost illegible to any be- 
side himself. He also had Bibles bound of duodecimo size 
with blank leaves inserted between the pages, on which he 
wrote these skeletons in this infinitesimal style. There are 
still in the possession of some of his surviving friends many 
of these briefs, serving only as relics of him, but not answer- 
ing any further purpose by reason of their illegible chiro- 
graphy. Yet from these notes he w^as never at the slightest 
loss for language, but being a fluent speaker, his habit was 
to preach rarely ever less than one hour. His distribution 
of the matter of a sermon was exhaustive, and the perora- 
tion, or summing up, of the discourse left the entire sermon 
clearly and distinctly impressed upon the mind of any atten- 
tive listener. The writer, wdien a student of the University 
of Georgia, enjoyed the great privilege of sitting as a pupil 
under the instruction of the eminent and eloquent Eev. Dr. 
Stephen Olin, at that time ]3rofessor of Belles Lettres, etc., 
in the faculty. The text-book which he used was Blair s 
Lectures (University edition). In discussing the lecture on 
the division of a discourse, the remark was made by I)r. 
Olin to the class that Dr. Waddel was a perfect example of 
a preacher who successfully illustrated Dr. Blair's method 
in this point. 

Dr. Waddel's work as a teacher was not all performed in 
the school-room. He was accustomed to give private in- 
struction occasionally to j^ersons who, coming especially 
from France, were desirous of learning to speak the English 
language. Being himself a master of the French language, 
and very fluent in speaking it, he was prepared to teach 
such foreigners the use of our tongue. One of these men 



Sabbath Observance. 63 

haviug heard of Dr. Wadclel as a French teacher, came, on 
his landing' on our shores, apphed, and was received as a 
puj^il under his care and as a member of his family. The 
name of this Frenchman was L'Andre. On a certain Sab- 
bath day in wintry weather, finding his fire getting low, he 
went to the wood-pile and began to cut fire-wood. The 
sound of the axe on the Sabbath being something so extra- 
ordinary on those premises (being a violation of positive or- 
ders well-known to all the household), fell sharply upon the 
ear of Dr. "Waddel as he sat in his study. He walked out 
immediately, and, discovering that it was the Frenchman 
thus engaged, he approached him and explained to him that 
this work was not allowed to be done on his place on the 
Sabbath, and showed him the reason for the prohibition. 
Whereupon Monsieur L'Andre, being at once convinced of 
the impropriety of his conduct, and in order to manifest his 
regret that he had unintentionally violated the rule, seizing 
the axe, hurled it with his utmost strength and buried it in 
the trunk of a neighboriDg tree ! Two things are illustrated 
by this incident: First, the rigid observance of the Sabbath 
exacted of all the members of that family, and second, the 
in^uence of Dr. Waddel in controlling his family, including 
even "the stranger within his gates." L'Andre, after a con- 
siderable period spent pleasantly with Dr. Waddel, left him 
and settled permanently in Louisiana. 

To return to some matters of more public nature, it may 
probably interest the reader to have presented some of the 
peculiarities of public worship as conducted in the Presby- 
terian churches of the period under consideration. The 
contrast between the methods then observed ar.-d those 
prevalent in the present time may be worthy of study and 
observation. To begin with the inside finish of the house of 
worship itself, it was of plain construction of wooden mate- 
rial, and nothing of ornament, but solid and comfortalile. 
The pews were ordinary benches with backs to them, and 



64 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

though not invariably rented, yet were generally distributed 
upon some equitable principle, so that each family occupied 
its own pew, and the children, as a rule, sat with the parents. 
The jDulpit of the Willington church was a very high, hex- 
agonal, box-like arrangement of panel work, closed on all 
sides, and entered by a door, which was closed during wor- 
ship. This pulpit entirely concealed the preacher from 
view except while engaged in conducting service, and even 
then his bust only was visible. Some pulpits were furnished 
with a structure called a sounding board, a flat surface 
placed behind the preacher and over his head to give dis- 
tinctness to the voice. At the base of the pulpit, and in 
front of it, was generally found a httle inclosure large enough 
to contain two persons, and furnished with an ordinary 
bench. This was assigned to the precentor, or clerk, whose 
office it was to raise the tune, parceling out the lines after 
the hj^mn had been selected and read by the minister. In 
those primitive days there was a necessity for the clerk to 
parcel out the lines of the hymn, as scarcely any one was 
supposed to have a hymn-book in hand. 

In these days, when everything, even among our churches, 
is on the march onward and upward, all this is changed. 
The old-fashioned high, closed pulpit is banished, and a 
small desk, just large enough to hold the pulpit Bible and 
hymn-book, has taken its place. Ornamental pews, or 
chairs, appear now, instead of the old-fashioned hard 
benches. The trained choir and a grand organ have been 
substituted for the solitary clerk and his assistant, with no 
parceling out of lines, as every one is supposed to have a 
hymn-book, if, indeed, they are allowed by some choirs to 
sing at all. But the mode of administering the sacrament 
of the Lord's supper presented then an equally striking 
contrast to the same solemn part of public worshij) as con- 
ducted now in our churches. The minister was expected to 
preach what was technically called " The Action Sermon." 



Administering the Lord's Supper. 65- 

This was understood to be a sermon peculiarly appropriate 
to the solemn occasion, being an exposition of a passage of 
Scripture calculated and designed to impress the audience 
with the great subject of the death and sufferings of our 
Lord and Saviour, and their purpose in the plan of salva- 
tion. At the close of the sermon he proceeded to explain 
the nature of the sacrament of the Lord's supper, and, after 
pointing out the qualifications of those who proposed to- 
commune, which exercise was also known by the name of 
*' Fencing the Tables," i. e., guarding them against the in- 
trusion of unworthy characters, the invitation was cordially 
extended to all who were in good standing in their own 
churches to come forward and join in partaking of the sac- 
rament. On communion occasions, instead of a publia 
assignment of special pews to be occupied by communicants, 
pointed out by the minister, and only one service for all, a 
long table, reaching down the centre aisle, was placed at the 
time of the communion. At the head of this long table was 
placed a smaller table, on which the elements were arranged, 
and covered with snow-white cloth. Over the full length of 
the long centre table a similar covering was spread. The 
elders were in the habit of distributing to the communi- 
cants little leaden medals, or tokens, as a recognition of 
their right to a seat. This was done previous to the taking 
of their seats at the long table, and as they, at the pro]^)er 
time, filed up the aisle and seated themselves at the table, 
these tokens were collected again by the elders. All being 
seated, the minister, at the head of the small table, pro- 
ceeded to administer the ordinance according to forms pre- 
scribed. More frequently than otherwise, it was necessary 
to serve the table more than once, as the number of com- 
municants was often so large that they could not be all 
seated at one table. As communion meetings were generally 
largely attended, and the interest was sometimes very great,, 
the minister in charge, almost invariably, secured the assist- 
6 



66 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

ance of a neighboring brother or brothers to aid him in 
preaching and serving with him in administering the sacra- 
ment, and very often from three to four or five tables were 
sjDread and served on one such occasion. Doubtless there 
are advantages in the changes introduced in modern times 
in some of these customs of public w^orship ; but to those 
who were actors in those early days of our church life they 
were all invested with the deepest solemnity, and the influ- 
ence exerted upon the devout church members was decidedly 
favorable to their growth in the divine life. 



1 



CHAPTEK XL 

WoKK Accomplished as a Teacher. — Men Trained by Him "Who Be- 
came Distinguished. — Correction of a Statement in Parton's 
Life of General Jackson. — Arrangements for Retiring from 
Teaching. 

IT is impossible even to name the individuals composing 
the long list of his j)upils, even were it proper to occupy 
the needed space in this record, or to impose upon the time 
and patience of the reader to such an extent. For a true 
and fair estimate of his life work, however, this enumeration 
is not by any means necessary. It may be sufficient to state 
that such a catalogue, if presented, would be found to cover 
all spheres of honorable and useful effort. Of ministers 
who attained high standing for devoted piety, zeal, and elo- 
quence in the south and southwest a goodly proportion re- 
ceived both their literary and their theological training un- 
der his instruction. Such were the Rev. Richard B. Cater, 
D. D., Rev. John H Gra}", D. D., Rev. David Humphreys, 
Rev. James Gamble, Rev. James C. Patterson, D. D., Rev. 
Thomas D. Baird, D. D., Rev. John Wilson, Rev. Daniel 
Campbell, and many others who have gone long since to 
their reward. They have left behind them their works, and 
their influence is still felt by thousands who never knew 
them on this earth. In public and j^ohtical life may be 
found, in addition to John C. Calhoun and to William H. 
Crawford, both of whom have already been mentioned, 
George McDuffie, Hugh S. Legare, James L. Pettigru, 
Pickens Butler, this last having served in the United States 
Senate, colleague of Calhoun; all South Carolinians, with 
others of "less note, but not less gifted," as Noble, Bull, 

67 



68 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

Dawson, Walker, Marshall, Shields, Simpkins, and others 
who served the State with eminent success. Then of his 
Georgia pupils we enumerate, besides Crawford, Cobb, 
Longstreet, Gilmer, Apphng, who reflected great credit upon 
their teacher in the councils and courts of the State and of 
the nation. 

Just here it falls in with the purpose of this record to 
vindicate the reputation of Dr. Waddel from a charge of ig- 
norance implied in an anecdote, which is found in Parton's 
Life of Andrew Jaclison. As an illustration of the Gene- 
ral's habit of pronouncing many English words improper 1}% 
the author states that on one occasion the word development 
came into use in the course of conversation, when the Gene- 
ral pronounced it with the accent upon the first and third 
syllables — "de-vil-6pe-ment." When corrected he retorted 
with this defiant remark: "I care not how others pro- 
nounce that word ; my old teacher, Dr. Waddel, always pro- 
nounced it this way, and so shall I ! " Now, the absurdity 
of this story will appear at once when it is well known that 
General Jackson not only never was a pupil of Dr. Waddel, 
\>vX there is no proof that they ever met, or had the slight- 
est acquaintance with each other. So that whatever credit 
might have been reflected upon the memory of Dr. Waddel 
from numbering the great warrior among his pupils, the. 
truth of history demands that this honor (?) shall be resj^ect- 
fuUy declined ! The friends and descendants of Dr. Wad- 
del are satisfied with the following testimony of Judge Long- 
street, who was one of his most honored pupils and most 
devoted friends and admirers. It is found in a most elo- 
quent eulogy pronounced in Athens, Ga., before the alumni 
of the University of Georgia, and at their request, in August, 
1841: 

"The fruits of his vineyard are scattered far and wide 
through the most of the Southern States, and long havethey 
been seen in rich luxuriance in the capitol of the Union. . . 



Invited to the University of Georgl\. 69 

One of his pupils reached the second i^ost in the gift of the 
people of the United States, and for many years were two of 
them the favorites of a vast number of that people for the first. 
It is not too much to say that there were times when they might 
have obtained it; and yet the time will never come when 
unbiased history wdll record that it was above their deserts. 
For thirty years he has not been without some Ajax in the 
field of political warfare, where all the champions of the 
States convene, whom, whatever w^e may have thought or 
said of his tactics, we all felt proud to acknowledge as a 
southron, and ^^rouder still to recognize as a fellow-disciple," 
The entire period of Dr. Waddel's residence at Willington 
covered a sj^ace of fourteen or fifteen years, and during 
nearly all this time he had been assiduously, either person- 
ally or by general superintendence, conducting the govern- 
ment and instruction of the academy. But he had long 
cherished the desire to withdraw from the practical business 
of teaching at the earliest possible time consistent with his 
views of duty. For some length of time the daily work was 
entrusted to the hands of his nephew, Moses Waddel Dob- 
bins, and perhaps another of his former puj^ils. This only 
continued during his actual residence there. It was while 
Dr. Waddel was devoting more of his attention to preaching 
and to his private interests that he received an ui'gent and 
persistent invitation to the presidency of the University of 
Georgia. This call proceeded from the friends of the insti- 
tution, among whom were some of his former pupils. That 
he was for a long time decidedly opposed to the proposition 
is matter of tradition, coming down from an intimate friend 
to whom he communicated his views and feelings on the 
subject. That friend has been heard to say that his mental 
anxiety, while considering the question, ^^as deep and his 
sufferings extreme. The idea of undertaking the heavy re- 
sponsibility involved in resuscitating the institution from a 
condition of temporary suspension into which it had fallen, 



70 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

and to impart to it that life and animation which would be na- 
turally expected, and which was so desirable, was viewed with 
profound reluctance on his part, and was regarded as a Her- 
culean enter]3rise. His objections were all met and overruled 
by his friends, and he was even visited by a committee, and 
urged so strongly to accept the office that he yielded. To 
this decision he was, doubtless, also led in answer to his own 
earnest prayers for divine guidance. His election to this 
high and important position occurred in 1818, and he began 
the preparations that were needful to his removal from the 
spot where he had passed so many happy and peaceful 
years of his life, and where he had so successfully laid the 
foundation of an enduring fame. 



CHAPTEK XII. 

Memoir of Cakoline Elizabeth Smelt. — Removal to Atheks. — Pre- 
vious History of the University. — Condition of Buildings ani> 
Endowment. — Prospects. 

IT ^vas about this time when he was considering the ques- 
tion of removal, that at the earnest request of some highly- 
esteemed friends in Augusta, Ga., he consented to "revise, 
arrange, and prepare for publication the papers containing 
the memoirs of Miss Caroline Elizabeth Smelt." This task 
was to him a labor of love, and the book was published in 
1819 in New York. It proved to be "a highly-interesting 
and pojDular work, which soon reached a third edition in 
this country and at least two in Great Britain." He re- 
mained at Willington until 1819, when, having perfected all 
his plans for removal, he left Willington with his family, 
and, 2^nrsuing his journey by private conveyance, as it was 
long before the era of railway travel, he arrived at Athens 
in May, and at once began the work which he came to per- 
form. 

Some preliminary history of the university may not be 
out of place just at this point, to show the exact condition of 
things as they existed on the accession of Dr. Waddel to the 
Presidency. The first notice of the University found in the 
archives of the State is the act of the Legislature of 1784, 
in the eleventh section of which act forty thousand acres of 
land were set apart for the endowment of a college or semi- 
nary of learning. This was followed, in 1785, by an act of 
the Legislature granting a charter for the establishment of 
an institution which was called "The University of Georgia." 
This was not carried into a regular organization until the 

71 



72 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

year 1801. A statement of Dr. Henry Hull, who describes 
those early tmies, is to the following effect: "The Governor, 
the State Senate, and the Board of Trustees of the Uni- 
Tersity of Georgia being stirred to action by public com- 
plaints of their neglect of that institution, which had hitherto 
existed only on paper, met and appointed a committee to se- 
lect a site for its location." The result of the investigations 
of this committee was the selection of a spot on the Oconee 
river (which w^as the site of the present city of Athens), and 
a tract of land consisting of six hundred nnd thirty-three 
acres of land was purchased there by the munificence of the 
Governor, John Milledge, and presented as a donation to 
the trustees. The election of the first president, Josiah 
Meigs, took place in the same year, 1801, and he resigned 
in 1811. He was succeeded by Eev. Dr. John Brown, whose 
term of service ended in 1816. The third president was 
Hev. Robert Finlej^, D. D., of New Jersey, whose term of 
service continued but a few months, and he died in 1817. 

The same writer referred to above (Dr. Henry Hull) 
states: "The prospect of the college grew darker, until for 
three years, 1817-'18-'19, there was a virtual susj^ension of 
worko In 1819 the board elected to the presidency the 
most popular educator in the south, Eev. Dr. Moses Wad- 
del. Dr. Henry Jackson, Mr. John R. Golding, and Dr. 
Alonzo Church were elected professors, and Mr. Ebenezer 
Newton tutor. These constituted the best Faculty the col- 
lege had ever had, which, together with the new endowment, 
■gave new life to the Institution. The philosophical hall was 
built and equij^jDed with new apparatus, and the University 
entered upon a career of usefulness which is unabated to 
the i^resent day." 

On the arrival of Dr. Waddel in Athens he found that the 
President's house had, after the lapse of some fifteen years 
or more, fallen into such a condition as to require consider- 
able repairs, and could not on that account be occupied. 



The Univeesity of Georgia. 73 

While tlie needed renovation was in progress, he, with his 
family, consisting of his wife and five children, took board- 
ing at what was then known as "Steward's Hall, or "Com- 
mons," for students. This building was located at a dis- 
tance of two or three hundred yards south of the old college, 
and it was then in the charge of a lady, described in Dr. Hull's 
Sketches of the Early History of Athens "as the venerable 
and venerated Mrs. Katherine Newton." In this she was 
assisted by her son. Colonel Josiah Newton. She was "the 
relict of the Rev. John Newton, mentioned in Chap. I., i^age 
■29, of this Memoir as one of the successive presiding teachers 
of "Clio's Nursery," while Dr. "Waddel was one of its pupils. 
Mr. Newton was then a candidate for the ministry, but was 
afterwards licensed and ordained to the full work of the 
gospel ministry. Dr. Hull states that "he was the first 
Presbyterian minister, or, at any rate, the first settled pas- 
tor in Georgia." Be that as it may, at the time here men- 
tioned Mrs. Newton was a widow, with three sons in Athens. 
How long this temporary abode at the hall with her con- 
tinued is not now known, but Dr. Waddel entered the Presi- 
dent's house at the earliest possible period. At this time 
the buildings belonging to the University were but three in 
number, consisting of the President's house, a story and 
ahalf in height; the old College building, of brick, three 
vstories high, and an old dilapidated framed building on the 
west side of the campus, which had been used as a chapel, 
and, after undergoing considerable repairs, was made to 
serve the purpose of morning and evening prayers. It was 
also for years afterwards the only house for public worship 
in the town of Athens. It was afterwards demolished, and 
a very large and imposing building of brick of modern 
architecture was erected on the same site, at a cost of fifteen 
thousand dollars. AVhile these repairs of the old chapel 
were progressing the first story of the new philosophical 
hall alluded to above was used for a chapel and house of 



74 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

■worsMp. This liall \yas erected after Dr. Wadders acces- 
sion to office. But when the old chapel was fully fitted up 
and furnished with a cupola for the bell, it was used as the 
place for college prayers again. The college bell, previous 
to this arrangement, had been suspended between two huge 
oaks in front of the President's house, which grew close 
enough to each other to admit of placing a cross-axle be- 
tween them, on which the bell could be fastened, and near 
enough to the ground to admit of being reached by the ven- 
erable colored sexton, old Dick Cary, as he was called, well 
described by Dr. Hull as being "a tall, fine-looking old 
negro, wearing his white hair very long — that is to say, very 
bushy. He was always well-dressed, and deported himself 
as if he considered his office in the college second only to 
Dr. Waddel's, and from no other would he take orders/' 

The buildings erected on the campus during Dr. AVaddel's 
administration were as follows : A four-story brick college 
dormitory on the west side of the campus, which was burned 
down in 1830, with the fine library and all the furniture 
contained in it, after his resignation. Halls for the accom- 
modation of the two literary societies were also erected by 
the students and their friends. The first hall of the De- 
mostheiiian Society was of wooden material, and was located 
just south of the Philosophical Hall, on the east side of the 
campus. This building was afterwards sold and removed, 
to North street, where it w^as converted into a dwelling. 
This society then erected a large brick hall, two stories in 
height, on the north side of the chapel, which remains to 
this day. The first room used for the accommodation of 
the Phi Kappa Society was in the garret of the old chajDel, 
which was fitted up comfortably and adapted to the work of 
the society. This was not used very long ,♦ but the students 
of that society next built a hall of wood, being a long build- 
ing of a single story in height, and was located just north 
of the second dormitory. This hall, in its internal arrange- 



I 



The University of Georgia. 75 

ment, consisted of one spacious room for the duties of the 
society, Tvith ante-rooms in front, one of ^vhicll was used as 
a library. This building '^as afterwards turned over to the 
authorities of the University, and used for a time as a reci- 
* tation-room. The society then had a fine brick hall built, 
located north of the site of the first president's house, on the 
east side of the campus. This remains still the Phi-Kappa 
Hall. The only additional building put up during Dr. Wad- 
del's administration was a two-story framed building for the 
accommodation of the Grammar School. This house was 
afterwards removed entirely from the campus, and a brick 
building erected on the site, used for a library and other 
University purposes. This house stood north of the Demos- 
thenian Hall, and on the w^est side of the campus. 

Before leaving the subject of buildings which belonged to 
the University during the term of Dr Waddel's presidency, 
it is proper to state that in 1819, except the house of the 
President, the Board had provided no residences for the 
other members of the Faculty. When Dr. Church was 
elected he at once proceeded to build a very excellent two- 
story framed dwelling on a beautiful and large lot in the 
northern part of the town. Before, however, it was coin- 
pleted he accepted a proposition from Dr. Waddel to ex- 
change places wdth him ; that is, that Dr. Church should 
sell his house and lot to Dr. Waddel and occui^y the Presi- 
dent s house as his residence. Not long after this the house 
into W'hich Dr. Church removed was greatly improved, a 
second story being added, with other comfortable arrange- 
ments. Dr. Waddel continued to reside in the house bought 
of Dr. Church until he resigned and left the town of Athens. 
The other buildings, now the property of the University, will 
be pointed out in the narrative as it progresses. 

The condition of the endowment at the time of Dr. Wad- 
del's election w^as about as follows, according to the most 
authentic information accessible : By an act of the Legis- 



76 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

lature of 1815, the arrangement of the income from the 
lands of the University having proved to be unsatisfactory, 
it was agreed that the State should assume $100,000 of the 
amount for which the lands had been sold, on which eight per 
cent, interest should be paid to the trustees for the support 
of the University. " This sum has been annually paid to the 
institution by the State regularly down to the present day." 
This was the income of the Institution in 1819 from public 
sources at the beginning of Dr. Waddel's presidency. There 
was a fee for tuition charged to each student, which, of 
course, increased this amount. But all other appropria- 
tions from the State were donations made to replace losses, 
and they were only temporary, and after the year 1841, 
"until 1875, a period of thirty-four years, nothing was done 
for the University by the State." With a single brief ex- 
tract from the eulogy of Judge Longstreet, in reference to 
the effect of Dr. Waddel's entrance upon the office of the 
Presidency, this chapter may be closed: " The effect of his 
coming to this Institution w^as magical. It rose instantly to 
a rank which it had never held before, and which, I am 
happy to add, it has maintained ever since." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Sketches of Dr. "Waddel's Coeleagles of the Faculty feom 1819 to 

John E. Golding, A. M. 

IT has alread}^ been mentioned that three Professors were 
associated with Dr. Waddel at the time of his election to 
the Presidency, in 1819. Of these, the record of two of 
them, Dr. Henry Jackson and Mr. John R. Goiding, as 
found in the Centennial Catalogue of the university, is that 
they were elected in 1811, and that Professor Goiding re- 
signed in 1819, and Dr. Jackson resigned in 1820. No 
further mention is made of the former, yet a brief sketch of 
his life may not be without interest, as he remained a citizen 
of Athens, and was an esteemed and intimate friend of the 
President. It is not probable that be performed an^^ active 
service as professor after Dr. Waddel's accession, but he 
had been in the service of the institution during- Dr. 
Brown's administration, and the probability is that, being 
called to the same chair by the Board on the reorganization, 
he declined the office, as his resignation took place in 1819. 
Of his professional career, this writer is in possession of no 
reliable data, as he does not seem to have been identified 
officially with the Faculty in 1819; but in regard to his 
character and reputation as a gentleman and a citizen of 
Athens, he was highly esteemed. He had at some j^revious 
l^eriod married a daughter of President Brown, but at the 
time now under consideration he was a widower, with only 
one child, a son, who bore his father's name, John Beid 
Goiding. Mr. Goiding was a gentleman of great jDcrsonal 
dignity and scholarly attainments, and was admired for his 

77 



78 Moses Waddel, D, D. 

courteous demeanor and easy address in intercourse with bis 
friends and neighbors. KSubsequently be married again, 
and the lady who became his second wife was a daughter of 
Judge Nott, of Columbia, S. C. Not very long after bis 
second marriage he died suddenly of apoplexy. Although 
not a colleague, he was an esteemed and intimate friend of 
Dr. WaddeL 

Henry Jackson, LL. D. 
Dr. Henry Jackson, whose name is mentioned in connec- 
tion with the foregoing as a member of the Faculty in 1819, 
seems also to have held office with President Brown, bavins- 
been elected Professor of Natural Philosophy in 1811. But 
referring again to the Centennial Catalogue, it is found that 
Dr. Jackson's election to the chair of Natural Philosoiohy 
took place in 1822, and bis resignation in 1825 ; that he was 
reelected in 1826, serving only one session, on account of 
failing health. Dr. Jackson M^as a man of fine traits of 
character, not only in social life, but in every capacity or 
sphere in which he was known. He was a gentleman of 
great scientific attainments, and was repeatedly appointed 
to office in the service of the University, until he was forced 
to retire from loss of health. He bad been associated with 
Hon. William H. Crawford, Minister to France in 1813, as 
secretary of legation. After his resignation, in 1827, be re- 
tired to his country seat near Athens. He was very much 
beloved and admired by the students who were his puj)ils 
while be was a member of the Faculty, and they frequently 
rode out to pay their respects to him after bis retirement, 
and they always found him ready to receive them with that 
true cordiality characteristic of the perfect gentleman that 
be was. On such occasions he was wont, in animated con- 
versation, to impart to them the rich fruits of his life of 
study and experience. His retirement from the service of 
the University was regarded at the time as well-nigh irre- 



Dr. James Tinsley. 79 

parable. He was a brother of James Jackson, Governor of 
Georgia. He died at his country seat near Athens, leavino- 
a son, Hon. Hemy E. Jackson, a citizen of Georgia, distin- 
guished as a jurist and a statesman. 

Dr. James Tinsley. 

This gentleman is mentioned as having been elected, in 
1820, Professor of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. The 
description of this erratic man, as we find it in Dr. Hull's 
interesting ^Sketches, to which the writer is already indebted 
for passages preceding, will give a life-like picture which 
many now living will at once recognize. Dr. Hull's narra- 
tive is as follows : 

"Dr. James Tinsley, a native of Columbia county, Ga., 
was a cotemporary of Judge Longstreet at Dr. AVaddel's 
school in AVillington, S. C. He studied medicine with Dr. 
Abbot, in Washington, Ga., and attended lectures in Phila- 
delphia, where his extraordinary talents began to be devel- 
oped. He was a distinguished member of a large class, 
and in their debating clubs, composed of Professors and stu- 
dents, attracted the notice and admiration of the Professors 
of that celebrated school. He returned to Washington after 
his graduation and commenced the practice ^\ath Dr. Ab- 
bott, who held him in the highest estimation, and made 
unusual efforts to introduce him into his own extensive prac- 
tice. But Tinsley was erratic, and defied the conventional 
rules of practice of medicine and of society, and in a year or 
two, in 1820, Dr. Abbot, who w^as an influential member of 
the Board of Trustees, jorocured for hiin the Professorship 
of Chemistry and Isatural Philosoph}' in FnuiM'ui College." 
(This name was given to the University of Georgia at the 
origin of the State system of education, and by this name it 
v;as known as generally and called as frequently as by the 
name of " University of Georgia " in those days.) Dr. Hull 
goes on to say : " He was totally unqualified for the chak, 



80 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

but his friends tliought that the wonderful power of his in- 
tellect would overcome his want of training and enable him 
to sustain himself. Dr. Tinsley, however, could not endure 
the quiet routine of College life, and, after two years of irk- 
some restraint, resigned." It is not necessary to follow the 
career of this singular character in minute detail, and it may 
be dismissed by simj)ly adding that, after a life spent in 
almost every conceivable variety of pursuits, exposing him- 
self, " without overcoat, umbrella, or any protection to the 
most inclement weather, with his shirt-collar and bosom 
open, and often without a hat," although "subject to violent 
and alarming hemorrhages from the lungs," from being 
comfortably wealthy he became poor ; was a contractor, and 
made brick and built houses ; practiced medicine and surgery 
without any of the needful instruments; and while he 
affected great contempt for etiquette in his intercourse with 
others, whenever he chose "he could act the courteous gen- 
tleman with charming grace." In Dr. Hull's expressive 
words, "thus he frittered quite away the richest endow- 
ments of intellectual wealth, which, if properly directed, 
would have made him eminently useful in his day." Thus 
he lived, and, removing from Georgia to Alabama, he shortly 
afterwards died in comparative obscurity. 

Rev. Joseph AVallace, A. M. 

The name which stands next on the roll after Professor 
Golding's, as Professor of Ancient Languages, is that of 
Rev. Jose^Dh Wallace, who was elected to that chair in 1820. 
He was a minister of the Associate Reformed Presbytery of 
Philadelphia, having taken his divinity course in the Theo- 
logical school established by the Rev. John M. Mason in the 
city of New York. 

The most obvious feature of Professor Wallace as a man 
that invariably impressed, not only strangers, but all who 
knew him only partially, was his unbending stiffness of man- 



I 



Eev. Joseph Wallace, A. M. 81 

ner. This appeared in liis conversational style, in his im- 
perturbable grayity, in the absence of anything hke a smile 
to irradiate his countenance; and ^^et the equal freedom 
from every symptom of passion, or excitement of ill-temper. 
There is no reason to doubt his possession of full qualifica- 
tion for the Professorship he was called to fill. Yet there is 
no traditional history of his traits as a scholar or teacher, 
either favorable or unfavorable. In the pulpit, Avhicli he oc- 
casionally occupied, he carried the same precise and lofty 
manner, approaching- stiffness; and his voico, while suffi- 
ciently loud and sonorous, was not remarkable for its variety, 
but was rather monotonous. While he remained in office 
he was unmarried, but becoming acquainted with a lady 
from the lower part of South Carolina, a widow of reputed 
wealth, a summer visitor at Athens, he addressed her and 
they were married. This closed his professional career, 
and ho left the University in 1822, and lived after his mar- 
riage on the fine plantation in the neighborhood of Beau- 
fort, S. C, of which he became master by this marriage. 
In 1836 he is reported by Dr. Howe to have been "received 
as a member of the Charleston Union Presbytery, and his 
name is entered on the Minutes of the General Assembly 
as 'W. C i. e.y without charge. What labors soever he 
may have performed were devoted to the colored people 
among whom he resided." He died in 1852, or 1853. 

It is noteworthy that, after the resignation of Professor 
Wallace, in 1822, there is no record of any incumbent being 
appointed to the chair he had filled until 1830. This was not 
occasioned by the fact that the Ancient Languages had been 
stricken from the course of study, but for some reason not 
now known the instruction in the Classics was placed in the 
hands of tutors, and a part of the duties of that chair were 
distributed among the other members of the Faculty until 
1830. 



^2 Moses W/.ddel, D. D. 

Rev. Alonzo Church, !D, D. 

Dr. Church was elected Professor of Mathematics and 
Astrononiy in 1819, as ah-eady stated, and began his con- 
nection as Professor with the University simultaneously with 
the Presidency of Dr. AVaddel. He filled tins chair for ten 
years, and on the resignation of Dr. Waddel, in 1829, he 
was called immediately to the vacant Presidency. He pre- 
sided to the great advantage of the University for thirty 
years, and in 1859 resigned the office and retired to private 
life. 

The only records of his life previous to his entrance upon 
the professorship are drawn from Dr. Howe's llhtory of the 
Presbyterian Church in Sovth Carolina, as found, first, in 
Yol. II., page 309. It is there briefly stated that, "at a 
meeting of the Presbytery (of Hoj^ewell) in September, 
1817, Alonzo Church, a graduate of Middlebury College 
(Vermont), was received as a candidate for the ministry." 
"We learn from the same volume, on page 772, that "he was 
first a teacher in the academy at Eatontou," Putnam county, 
Ga. He came from that place to the University at Athens. 

The writer retains a very distinct recollection of Dr. 
Church, as he was a student under his instruction from 1826 
to 1829. He was a tall and finel^'-proportioned man, grace- 
ful and dignified in his carriage, of dark and bloodless com- 
plexion, and of very black eyes and hair. His eyes were re- 
markable for their bright and piercing lustre. He was 
■quick of temper, and respected by all orderl}'- and correct 
students, but by the negligent and disorderly he was feared 
and avoided more than any other Professor. A rigid dis- 
ciplinarian, he was prompt to correct and rebuke the slight- 
est indication of disorder or inattention in his class-room. 
He acted as librarian at one time, and the library was then 
tept in the third story of the second dormitory. This room 
he occupied as his study during day-time, as it opened into 
liis class or lecture room. The j)reservation of order during 



Rev. Alonza Church, D. D. 83 

study hours at night was entrusted to tutors, who used 
rooms in the dormitories, both as studies and sleeping 
rooms. Their duties were also aided in this res^^ect by pro- 
fessors in daylight. 

An incident that occurred during the attendance of the 
writer as a student will illustrate the promptness of Dr. 
Church in quelling disorder, and the fear always excited 
among the students by any manifestation of his displeasure. 
A glance at his domestic history will enable the reader more 
23roperly to appreciate the circumstances of the case. The 
Doctor was the father of four daughters before a son was 
"born to him. On the news of the birth of this son being 
learned by the students, it was suggested at once that a pe- 
iition should be presented to the Faculty for holiday in com- 
pliment to the family, and as a welcome to the advent of 
the 3'oung stranger. Just before eleven o'clock a. m., which 
was the hour for recitation, the petition was returned, hav- 
ing been granted. It so happened that just then, in the 
fourth story of the dormitory, were gathered in the room 
just above Dr. Church's study some half-dozen of the most 
orderly students, preparing for recitation. On the presen- 
tation to them of the decision of the Faculty, it was received 
by a most boisterous shouting and laughter and stamping 
upon the floor as a manifestation of the exuberance of tlieii' 
joy. In a very few minutes, to our utter amazement and 
fright. Dr. Church made his appearance, and, when the 
door was opened and he discovered that the actors were 
students of the most orderly character, he lifted his hands 
and exclaimed: "AYhy, gentlemen, I am more than aston- 
ished!" The students had only time to say to him, "Doc- 
tor, we have holiday," when he left them abruptly, and tbey 
began to suspect that they had been "badly sold," and that 
there was no holiday, as Dr. Church seemed not to be aware 
of it. They anticipated nothing less thfcU a summons be-. 
fore the Faculty upon a charge of disorderly conduct, but 



84 Moses AVaddel, J). D. 

this suspense was soon ended, as Dr. Church, after leaving 
the room, encountered a student, and on inquiring the rea- 
son of the hohday, and learning that it was on the occasion 
of the birth of his son, returned immediately, explained, and 
apologized. So all ended happily, and Alonzo Church, Jr., 
on his arrival, was greeted with a demonstration not usually 
bestowed upon our boys 

The pulpit talents of Dr. Church were held in high esti- 
mation by some w^ho enjoyed the privilege of his ministra- 
tions. He occasionally filled the j^ulpit in Athens, but he 
performed a great deal of missionary and evangelistic ^^reach- 
ing for country churches and congregations in reach of 
Athens. It is a noble tribute to his memory wdiich is found 
in a memorial adopted by the Synod of Georgia, and re- 
corded in the Minutes of 1870, i^age 6: "It was his delight 
and glory to preach the gospel to the poor, nor did he cease 
to do this to the day of his death." 

Gamaliel S. Olds, A. M. 
This gentleman was appointed Professor of Natural Phil- 
osophy in 1825, after Dr. Henry Jackson's first retirement. 
He resigned in 1826, and as he served but one session, there 
is nothing of interest on record of his talents, qualities, or 
his success. His name may, therefore, be dismissed, with 
the single remark that lie possessed no traits of practical 
usefulness, and that his term of service furnishes nothing 
affecting the history of the University, whether for good or 
evil. 

Peofessok James Jackson, A. M. 
The next full Professor who was a colleague of Dr. Wad- 
del was James Jackson, A. M. He was elected to the chair 
of Chemistry in 1823, and on the retirement of his uncle, 
Dr. Henry Jackson, in 1827, he succeeded him as Professor 
of Natural Philosophy. Taking the two chairs together, his 



Rev. Stephen Olin, D. D. 85 

term of service continued through the Presidency of Dr. 
Waddel ; but in 1842 he was relieved of the duties of the 
•chair of Natural Philosophy, after serving- fifteen years in 
it, by the election of Dr. C. F. McCay. After this change 
he continued to fill the chair of Chemistr}^ &c., until 1850, 
vrhen, after twenty-three years of laborious work, he re- 
signed, and was succeeded by Dr. W. L. Jones. Professor 
Jackson was a man of more than ordinary attainments in 
many departments of literature and science. He instructed 
the classes for some years in Latin and in French. He was 
a son of Governor James Jackson, and a nephew of Dr. 
Henry Jackson. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church 
in Athens, and had a most interesting family. During his 
residence in Athens he was subject to periodical attacks of 
sick headache, which interfered not a little with his attend- 
ance on class exercises. At the time of these attacks he 
suffered too intensely to admit of his leaving his room. He 
was a man of irreproachable character, and his long service 
of twenty- three years in various departments is of itself an 
evidence of his merit and a testimonial of the high estima- 
tion in which he was held by the Board. 

Rev. Stephen Olin, D. D. 
This eminent man and minister of the gospel in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church was a native of Vermont, and 
graduated at Middebury College, in that State, in 1820. He 
was a teacher first in South Carolina, and there joined the 
Conference, and was stationed for two years in Charleston. 
In 1826 he was elected to the chair of Ethics and Meta- 
physics in the University of Georgia, and in 1828 resigned 
in consequence of ill-health. He was a very remarkable 
man in many respects. Of extraordinary physical size, not 
fleshy, but tall, and broad and muscular, of large head, and 
countenance indicative of determined will, one would judge, 
from his appearance, that when in health he must have pos- 



86 Moses Waddel, B. D. 

sessed very great physical power. As a Professor, he was 
unsurpassed in the power of imparting knowledge and of 
exerting an influence over students. It w^as considered a 
great privilege to " sit at his feet " as a teacher and to have 
been numbered among his pupils. As a preacher, he was- 
grand in thought and eloquent in delivery, and held his au- 
dience ra]3t in admiration and transported by his eloquence. 
His health was very precarious, and he resigned in 1828, 
after two years' service. He was recalled in 1831, and 
served a second term of two years. After his resignation, 
in 1833, he accepted the Presidency of Randolph-Macon 
College, in Virginia. He travelled subsequently for some 
time in Europe, Egypt, and Palestine, and his travels were 
published in two volumes. In 1842 he was made President 
of Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Conn., and remained 
in that office until his death. 

The remaining members of the faculty of this period, 
from 1819 to 1829, were eight in number, and the term of 
service of these, who were tutors, varied from one to five 
years, only one of whom served as long as five years. Of 
the first, J. J. Ivilpatrick, so little is known as to require 
only that he should be named as holding the office one year. 
The same may be said of C. D. Davis. 

Rev. Alexander H. Webster, A. M. 
With regard to the gentleman whose name stands at the 
head of this paragraph a much more interesting sketch should 
be written. He was an earnest and devoted Christian 
teacher during his term of service in the University, and en- 
joyed the unqualified friendship of Dr. Waddel and of Dr. 
Church. He retired, at the close of his tutorship of two years, 
in 1823, and located himself in Washington, Ga., where he 
had charge of the church and academy until his death, in 
1828. 



( 



Prof. James P. Waddel, A. M. 87 

In addition to his many claims to high esteem and grati- 
tude from the State for his public services, Mr. Webster de- 
serves the credit of being mainly instrumental in securing 
for Alexander Stevens the academic and collegiate education 
which fitted that noble Christian statesman for the great 
services he afterwards rendered to his native State and to 
the whole government. The exceedingly interesting ac- 
count of the whole transaction is recorded in the Life of A. 
H. Stephens, by Johnston & Brown, on pages 47-51. 

James P. Waddel, A. M. 
As this gentleman occupied the tutorship only two years, 
and subsequently filled the chair of Ancient Languages in 
the Uni'-ersity for a term of twenty j^ears, it is only neces- 
sary to say that when he resigned, in 1824, he left the Uni- 
versity with an exalted reputation as a scholar and teacher, 
and retired to prosecute his career as an educator in several 
prominent places, among which were the Richmond Acad- 
emy, in Augusta, Ga., which he occupied for six years, and 
at Wilhngton, S. C, where he revived the .academy founded 
by his father. There he remained until 183G, when he re- 
moved to Athens and became Professor of Ancient Lan- 
guages. Before his settlement in Athens in connection 
with the University he had been elected to the same chair in 
the year 1830 at the annual meeting of the trustees of the 
University in August. It was then the provision of the act 
by which the University was originally established, in 1785, 
that "the general superintendence and regulation of the 
literature of the State should be confided to two bodies— one 
consisting of the Governor and Council, the Speaker of the 
house of assembly, and the Chief Justice, and the other con- 
sisting of thirteen persons, to be called "the Board of Trus- 
tees." These two bodies, united, were to constitute the 
"Senatus Academicus of the University of Georgia." This 
"Senatus Academicus" was in existence in 1830, but waa 



88 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

abolished December 14, 1859. It was about the year 1830 
that cousidei'able excitement prevailed throughout the State 
among* the various denominations of the Christian church 
upon the subject of education. Among other feehngs that 
were developed was that of a jealousy of the University, upon 
the ground that there seemed to have been a monopoly of 
the offices in the Faculty enjoyed by one denomination to too 
large an extent. The fact was that the administration of 
the external and internal affairs of the University had been 
in the hands of Presbyterian Presidents from its organiza- 
tion in 1801, as a school of the higher learning, to the time 
of this election of James P. Waddel, in 1830 ; and it may be 
added, that Presbyterian Presidency continued to be the 
order of affairs for twenty-nine years longer. The trustees 
bad not excluded any gentleman and scholar from a Profes- 
sorship in this long period, but there had been incumbents 
of the subordinate ouices from the other churches "whenever 
the trustees were convinced of the fact that a candidate 
possessed the requisite qualifications. It is certainly not to 
be attributed to any partiality on the part of the Board that 
Presbyterians had been invariably appointed to the Presi- 
dency for fifty-nine years. But on the election of Professor 
Waddel, in 1830, great dissatisfaction was found to exist, 
and was made knov/n through the journals of the State on 
the subject of the a^ipointment of another Presbyterian. 
The ground of complaint was based upon the fact that the 
University was a State institution, the property of the State, 
and hence all classes of the people w^ere entitled justly to a 
representation in its management. The excitement grew in 
intensity, until, at the meeting of the Senatus Academicus, 
in December, 1830, at the seat of government, the action of 
the trustees at their meeting in August preceding was re- 
viewed and reconsidered, and, to allay the dissatisfaction of 
the malcontent denomination. Professor "Waddel (who had 
xiot entered upon the duties of the chair to which he had 



James P. Waddel, A. M. 89 

been elected) was superseded by the appointment of the 
Eev. James Shannon, pastor of the Baptist church in 
Augusta, Ga. This gentleman held the office until 1835, 
and resigned to accept the Presidency of the Missouri Uni- 
versity, and not long thereafter he left the Baptist church 
and entered the Christian (Campbellite) church, and died 
not long after he had vacated the Presidency of the Univer- 
sity of Missouri. 

On the retirement of Professor Shannon from the chair 
of Ancient Languages in the Georgia University, in 1835, 
the Board of Trustees called Professor Waddel to the vacant 
chair, in 1836, which he filled with entire acceptance for 
twenty years. In 1856 a state of dissatisfaction occiu-red 
in the Faculty', and it became necessary for him and a large 
number of his colleagues to resign, in order that the Board 
might reorganize the Faculty and secure harmony. It is 
unnecessary to explain this state of things, but it was not 
the result of any deficiency on his part, or on that of the 
others who were with him, either as gentlemen or scholars. 
But it was in consequence of serious differences of judgment 
on the part of these professors as regarded ''the government 
of young men and the standard of attainment for gradua- 
tion." Professor Waddel then removed from Athens to 
Montgomery, Ala., where he was engaged in teaching a se- 
lect class of young men at high compensation until the vrar 
began. He had found his health on the decHne, and had 
resolved that he must abandon teaching. He was then in- 
vited by Governor Moore, of Alabama, to accept the position 
of Secretary in the Governor's office, and on the election to 
the office of Governor of John Gill Shorter (a favorite i:fupil 
•of his), he was called to the same office, and subsequently 
he filled the same office under Governor Watts. This was 
the last service he was ever to perform of a public natui'e. 
At the close of the war, in feeble health, he returned to 
Athens, and ended his days in the house of his son, Wilham 



90 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

Henry Waddel, who had filled the chair of Languages from 
1860 in the University of Georgia under the Presidency of 
Chancellor Lipscombe. He died of paralysis on May 27, 
1868, after having been a laborious and accomplished 
teacher for forty-one years, aged sixty-seven years five 
months and twenty-one days. 

I think it will be not without interest to his former pupils, 
some of whom still survive him, to read the subjoined testi- 
monial, furnished by my friend and former colleague. Pro- 
fessor John K. Blake, at La Grange, Tenn. Professor 
Blake was a member of the class of 1846, and graduated 
with high distinction. He has filled several chairs in the 
educational institutions of the South. 

''Recollections of Professor James P. Waddel. 

" I recall with much pleasure the kind and sympathetic 
nature, cordial manner, and high-toned Christian bearing of 
my friend. Professor James P. Waddel, while I was his 
pupil at Athens, Ga. In the class-room and out of it he 
ahvays greeted his students with a genial recognition which 
invited confidence and secured esteem from every generous 
heart. As a teacher, he exhibited classic taste and accurate 
scholarship. There was also a poetic vein in his mental 
composition which gave to his rendition of Greek and Ro- 
man authors an elegance peculiar to himself. To his pu^^ils 
he allowed much liberty in their translations, giving the 
freest scope to the individuality of each, that every one 
might develop the most natural and easy forms of thought 
and expression, reserving to himself the duty of retouching 
those forms when the Avork was finished. 

"As a disciplinarian, Professoi' W^addel relied mainly 
upon the gentlemanly instincts of his pupils. He was always 
kind and courteous in his bearing towards them, and by his 
own scrupulous politeness compelled respect fi'om all who 
had any proper appreciation of moral excellence. When 



Rev. James C. Patterson, D. D. 91 

occasion offered, however, he coiild rebuke with telling effect, 

while still maintaining a courtly dignity of demeanor 

On one occasion some unknown hand had cast a handful of 
shot into the room as the class was entering. The Professor 
remained silent for a moment, then, looking round upon the 
rear of the entering class, he broke forth in withering sar- 
casm upon the unknown offender, pointing out how far he 
had forgotten the courtesy due fi'om gentlemen and the 
chivalry to be expected from Southern young men. The 
offence was never repeated, nor could I ever find one bold 
enough to confess the authorship of the deed." 

Rev. James C. Patterson, D. D. 
This gentleman was appointed tutor in 1823, one year 
after his graduation, and resigned, after a service of two 
years, in 1825. He was a solid and substantial character, 
an excellent scholar, with more reality in his merit than 
man}' who made more showy appearances. He succeeded 
afterwards Rev. Joseph C Stiles as supply of the church 
in Macon, Ga., in 1828, when that church was in its infancy. 
He continued to servo that people as their minister " for a 
period of three j^ears, much interrupted by ill-health. He 
died on July 18, 1866, in the sixty-third year of his age." 

Of Ephraim S. Hopping it may be said that he filled the 
office of tutor for three years, from 1824 to 1827, giving en- 
tire satisfaction to all concerned; was licensed to preach, 
but was never ordained. On his resignation, he soon after 
married a lady of wealth and refinement, and became a 
j)lanter. He was a most genial and kind-hearted gentle- 
man, and was beloved and resi^ected by the students. He 
was a graduate of Princeton College, N. J., and was a fine 
classical scholar. He died of a painful affection of his head 
and face, but it is not known in what yeai' he died. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

Univeesity Administkation During Dr. Waddel's Presidency. — His 
Life in Athens — His Services to the Cause of Christian Edu- 
cation. 

THE sketches of Dr. Waddel's colleagues being closed, 
the narrative will now return to the more special record 
of his personal history. There can be no doubt that his 
views and practice upon the subject of discipline were, even 
in his day, not in perfect accord with those prevalent in 
many parts of the country. Having been for so many 3'ears 
independent of all outside control or dictation as to the 
management of his academy, and never having been accus- 
tomed to seek counsel of man, he naturally felt that he him- 
self was responsible for the administration of the affairs, ex- 
ternal and internal, of the University to the best advantage. 
Having been so successful in his preceding years as a dis- 
ciplinarian, and as he had abundant testimony, voluntarily 
furnished by his former patrons and pupils, that his mode 
of government had proved to be eminently satisfactory, he 
X^erhaps anticipated that the management recjuired in the 
University would partake of the same essential features by 
which his former administration had been characterized. 
Finding himself surrounded by various influences, and that 
there were others who must, in a measure, control affairs in 
the University, and that to them he should be held respon- 
sible, he very readily adopted and put into practice many 
modifications of the system to which he had formerly been 
accustomed. The consequence was that the term of his 
Presidential rule was eminently successful. The statement 
that he believed in and practiced corporal 'punishment for 
92 



College Discipline. 93 

College students is a mistake. This idea was, on one occa- 
sion, suggested by a most excellent trustee, of old-fasliioned 
views, that " hojs of the Freshman class who needed pun- 
ishment ought to be whipped." But that such a proposi- 
tion ever proceeded from Dr. Waddel, or that such a mode 
of correction was ever put into execution as regards Univer- 
sity students, cannot be shown. The basis for the erroneous 
statement is a single entry in Dr. Waddel's diary, still ex- 
tant, as follows : " Caught chewing tobacco, and 

whipx^ed him." The explanation of this entry is that some 
old friends and pupils had prevailed upon Dr. Waddel to 
receive into his family their sons, young lads, to be trained 
exactly as his own children. These boys never entered col- 
lege while with him ; and so he did train them, controlling 
and correcting them when necessary, as any sons of his own 
would have been treated. 

One other fact may be mentioned as showing the mis- 
taken views entertained by some in regard to college dis- 
cipline. One of the trustees, not a resident of Athens, be- 
came greatly offended by receiving an anonymous letter 
from some one, supposed to be a student, who ridiculed and 
insulted him in the communication. Charging it as a gross 
offence, and considering it the duty of the President to arrest 
and punish the offender, when it could not be ascertained 
who the writer was, he visited his wrath upon the President 
and Faculty, and if he had been a man of influence he might 
have effected some evil result. But it all passed off in 
smoke, and nothing ever came of the matter, as it was im- 
possible to institute any proceedings that would lead to a 
detection of the author of the quiz. Just at this point it is 
appropriate to introduce the following estimates of Dr. 
Waddel as a disciplinarian, as they have both been pub- 
Hshed, as the unbiased judgment of two high-toned gentle- 
men intimately acquainted with him, and fellow-citizens 
thoroughly cognizant of his whole career at Athens. The 



94 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

first of these testimonials is from Dr. Hull's Sl'etches of 
Athens, to wliicli reference has already been made. Says 
he: "His administration of the University was singularly 
successful. From the handful of students he found (mus- 
tering seven students at full roll-call), the attendance in- 
creased to one hundred or more, and for ten years, with 
"wise counsel and inflexible discipline, he kept the Institution 
ever advancing." So Dr. Church, who was his associate in 
the Faculty and his intimate friend for ten years, thus writes 
of him in this particular in a letter found in the Aiiiials of 
the American Pulpit, by Dr. Sprague, Vol. IV., pp. 68 and 
70: "Dr. Waddel was, in the estimation of some, a stern 
disciplinarian, and yet no man was more mild or conciliatory 
toward those who were disposed to do their duty, and no 
one was ever more ready to aid his pupils in their efforts to 
acquire knowledge. His study was at all times open to 
those seeking assistance, and he would lay aside the most 
interesting and important business to answer the inquiries 
of a student." In another place Dr. Church speaks of him 
thuti : " The circumstances of the university were, when Dr. 
Waddel was called to preside over it, peculiarly embarrass- 
ing. They were sach as no one can fully comprehend who 
was not connected with it ; they w^ere such, I am fully per- 
suaded, as few men would have been able to meet, without 
ultimately abandoning it in despair. And to the wisdom 
and prudence and reputation of that good man is Georgia 
very largely indebted for the respectability and usefulness 
of her State College. The success which attended his efforts 
in raising the Institution so rapidly as he did to respect- 
ability has been to many inexphcable; but to those who 
well understood his character, the success is by no means 
surprising." Of the Board of Trustees in office during his 
Presidency, numbering thirty or more, there were some very 
distinguished men of the State, such as William H. Craw- 
ford, George R. Gilmer, John M. Berrien, George M. 



Influencing Students for the Ministry. 95 

Troup, Thomas W. Cobb, and Duncan G. Campbell, some 
of whom ^Ye^e old pupils, but none of them residents of 
Athens. Tiiere were, however, three members of the Board 
Avho were citizens of Athens, with whom he was associated 
on terms of warm and intimate friendship and unreserved 
confidence. These were Hon. Augustine S. Clayton, Dr. 
James Nisbet, and Dr. Henry Hull. They were all promi- 
nent in the town by reason of their intelligence and high 
social position. Tliey were the esteemed counsellors of Dr. 
Waddel on all subjects which involved the interests of the 
XTniversity. At the time of his removal to Athens the only 
place of public worship was the old chapel, and afterwards 
the Philosophical Hall. The Presbyterian church was or- 
ganized by Dr. Waddel March 4, 1821, with fourteen mem- 
bers, and afterwards the congregation erected a very excel- 
lent framed house of worship, then considered quite a fine- 
looking building. It was located on the north side of the 
University campus, on the main street of the town. He 
served this church as stated supply for nearly ten years, and 
after his removal the church called to the j^astorate Eev. 
Dr. Nathan Hoyt, who served the people for thirty-seven 
years. 

A prominent trait of Dr. Waddel, as an educator, known 
to his intimate friends, was his persistent determination to 
^ive to all his educational system an impression of Chris- 
tian character. On this subject the writer prefers, for ob- 
vious reasons, to avail himself of the letter of Dr. Church, 
not only as that of one whose testimony cannot be biased by 
the partiality of a kinsman, but as of one abundantly fitted 
by long association with Dr. Waddel to furnish a correct re- 
cord of his i^eculiarities : 

"The grand object," says Dr. C, "which he had in view 
while engaged in the business of instruction was the incul- 
cation of truth, which, directly or indirectly, would have an 
influence upon the great cause of the gospel. The country 



96 Moses \\'addel, D. D. 

"was new, the population was raiDidly increasing, and the few 
schools then existing were almost universally under the con- 
trol of men who were ignorant and vicious, and often infidel. 
Dr. AVaddel saw the necessity for different schools, and re- 
solved that, by the blessing of God upon his labors, he 
■would endeavor to show the practical benefits resulting from 
those conducted by well-educated and pious men. To ac- 
complish this reformation, he saw the necessity of teachers 
educated at home, educated in the fear of God, teachers 
who would carry into the school-room something of the 
Bible. He accordingly encouraged those who were under 
his instruction, and especially those who were pious, to pre- 
pare themselves for teachers. To those who were unable to 
bear the expense of their education he opened the doors of 
his school, and often of his house, leaving them in after life 
to make such return as they might be able and might think 
proper to make. The heart of this good man also yearned 
over the multitudes in the adjacent regions who were 'as 
sheep having no shepherd.' He ardently desired to see in- 
telligent and pious young men consecrating their talents to 
the service of God in the ministry of the gospel. His school 
was, therefore, always 'a school of the prophets.' Every 
encouragement was given by him to those whose minds were 
turned to this subject; and, by directing his pupils to the 
great want of ministers, he was instrumental in diverting- 
many from mere secular pursuits to the sacred office. In 
this respect, I apxDrehend, few men have been more useful 
to the church. Like his divine Master, he was continually 
saying to many, and apparently with effect, ' Go preach the 
gospel.' Looking at the condition of the country, and espe- 
cially of the church, he believed that it was the duty of 
many who were called to the ministry to engage also in the 
business of instruction, and he accordingly encouraged 
many of the young men who studied with him to pursue a 
course which he had felt it his duty to pursue. By this 



Determination to Preach. 97 

means in a short time many feeble churches were partially 
supplied with Christian ministrations, and a striking change 
was wrought in the aspect of society." 

It should not be forgotten, as has been already recorded 
of Dr. AYaddel, that he was not only a life-long laborer in 
the field of practical education in the class-room, but the 
fact, not so well known to many, is that he remained through 
all his days, until laid aside in the providence of God by 
disease, a laborious and devoted minister of the gospel. It 
was a rare occurrence that prevented him from filling the 
pulpit wherever he made his home. In yielding, as he did, 
to the j)ressing call of the Trustees to the Presidency of the 
institution, it formed only a part of the influential reasons 
that prevailed with him that the University should be raised 
*' to literary eminence." It ought to be stated that he never 
entered upon any enterprise to which he was invited with- 
out asking of Divine Wisdom to make the path of duty 
plain before him. The motive which weighed more heavily 
with him, inducing him to accept the call, was undoubtedly 
a conviction that in the near future there seemed to be 
opened before him a new field of that kind of labor that lay 
nearest his heart, and in which he always most delighted. 
Nor is it at all probable that he would for a moment have en- 
tertained the proposition to remove to Athens had no door 
of entrance been open before him to preach the gospel. 
But although a State Institution, the common property of 
all the citizens of Georgia, it is a blessed fact in the history 
of the University that no influence was ever attempted from 
any quarter to prevent the Faculty from preaching. This 
fact, to the honor and credit of the Board of Trustees, should 
be recorded, and may be regarded as in striking and grati- 
fying contrast to the course pursued by other bodies of pub- 
lic trust having in charge the interest of State Institutions 
of learning. He not only preached in person in Athens in 
the chai^el, but he was careful to avail himself of the ser- 
V 



98 Moses AVaddel, D. T>. 

vices of his brethren whenever they could be obtained. 
There occurred within the memory of living alumni even 
now several remarkable revivals of religion, in the blessed 
influences of which the students of the University largely 
shared. Such, if called on to testify, might revive even now, 
after the lapse of a half century, the recollection of a great 
"Work of grace that was enjoyed by the town and University 
tmder the powerful preaching of such consecrated men as 
Kev. Joseph C. Stiles, Rev. S. S. Davis, Eev. A. H. "Webster, 
and others, who were invited to come and spend a season of 
pulpit labor in Athens. During his Presidency in Athens 
the prosperity of the University attracted the attention of 
the entire State, and the population of the town rapidly in- 
creased by the removal of many to secure for their sons the 
advantages of a classical education, and the active business 
of the community in evevy department grew and extended 
to a considerable degree. The consequence was that all de- 
nominations of Christians were soon enabled to organize 
their people into churches, and to erect excellent and, some 
of them, beautiful houses of worship. All this was the na- 
tural result of the iiourishing and eminently solid condition 
of the system of College administration, based, as it certainly 
was, upon Christian principle. This enlargement of church 
^tdvantages and privileges could not but exert a happy in- 
flueuce upon the students, as they enjoyed the opportunity 
of sitting under the preaching of ministers of the best class, 
representing all the various denominations. 

Another fact in this connection deserves to be mentioned. 
Among the large number of young men who flocked to the 
University a goodly proportion were poor and pious; and 
while anxious to prepare themselves for the ministry, they 
were destitute of the means to meet the necessary expenses. 
Just such youths of promise were urged and invited by Dr. 
"Waddel to become students of the Institution. Quite a num- 
ber were admitted by the i^rovisions of the University code 



Cake of Young Men for the Ministry. 99 

to free tuition who were desirous to preach. Says Dr. 
Church again, ''Dr. Waddel induced several families in the 
towTi and adjoining county each to board one poor young 
man who w^as preparing for the ministry. God poured out 
his Spirit upon the institution, and many, in a few years, were 
hopefully converted, and went forth as teachers of acad- 
emies and preachers of the gospel. At the end of ten years 
the good man was permitted to see a change in the institu- 
tion, a change of the moral and rehgious aspect of the State, 
a change in the prospects of the feeble branch of it to which 
he belonged, which more than realized his most sanguine 
expectations." It is thus seen that he did not err in his in- 
terpretation of the indications of Providence in respect to 
accepting the call to the University. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Dii, Waddel's Objects in View in Accepting the Presidency of the 
University. — Successful Results. — Close of his Term of Ser- 
vice. — Resignation. 

"VrO one not intimately associated with Dr. AVaddel pre- 
.i.M vious to liis removal to Athens, and his entrance npon 
the untried duties of President of a Universit}', can appre- 
ciate the state of his mind, in view of so radical a revolution 
of all his cherished plans as was involved in this movement. 
For the space of more than thirty-five years he had been 
laboriously engaged in the practical business of education, 
and in connection with tliis department of labor, for more 
than a quarter century he had devoted himself, with equal 
earnestness and consecration, to the solenm service of the 
gospel ministry. And now he had been contemplating, 
with pleasing anticipations, a partial release from this long- 
continued and toilsome double work. It was thus his cher- 
ished scheme to withdraw gradually from the school-room, 
in order that he might have more leisure to devote his mind 
and his time to the work of the ministry, without the intru- 
sion of other cares upon his attention. It is known to those 
who were intimately acquainted with his private history 
that he loved the work of the ministry, and was just as 
much absorbed in his ministerial office as in that of a 
teacher. It was just at such a time as that, in 1818, when 
the call to the State University was pressed so urgently 
upon him by his friends and pupils in Georgia. The writer 
has learned from a member of his family, to whom he ha- 
bitually communicated his most secret thoughts, that the 
mental conflict through which he passed in the considera- 

100 



His Influence in the Presidency. 101 

tion and decision of this question was extremely distressing, 
and at one time seemed as though it would prove disastrous. 
As his life-long custom at all times had been to seek light 
on all subjects involving a question of duty from the only 
infalliblo source, which had always made the way clear and 
the path plain, so on this occasion he obeyed the injunction 
and realized the promise in the Word of God, " If any of 
you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men 
liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." 
Convinced, then, that it was clearly his duty to accept the 
call to this new field, he yielded, wdth some reluctance, all 
his i3rivate and personal objections, and accepted it as the 
will of God pointing out to him what he should do. Find- 
ing, on full discussion, that no obstacle would ever be made 
to his exercising his ministry in this sphere of service, he 
entered with his accustomed zeal and devotion upon his 
duties as President, with two motives operating upon him, 
"which he kept steadily in view during his ten years' term of 
office. These motives w^ere : First. Here he could use his 
best efforts, rel^dng upon divine aid, to raise the University 
from the low state to which it had sunk in public estima- 
tion, and to give it so much respectability and usefulness as 
to secure the confidence of the people of the State. But 
this was not the only nor the chief controlling motive w^hich 
brought his mind to the decision that he was directed by 
di\'ine providence to accept the call, for, secondly^ he felt 
that before him would be opened a grand opportunity of 
communicating to the system of public education the spirit 
of Christianity as the animating principle of the whole, not 
only by preaching, but by prominently holding up the Bible as 
the source and fountain of all true wisdom and government. 
He held that the education which only tends to the cultiu*e 
of the intellect by the communication of scientific and literary 
truth is defective in that it would traiij the mind in a one- 
sided method by ignoring his moral nature. For this rea- 



102 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

son he invariably sought to unite the two great departments 
of the human subject, and bring them both, the intellectual 
and the moral, under the influence, not only of science, but 
of Christianity. It is surely no derogation from these ac- 
tuating motives, but rather a confirmation of their influence 
over his own mind, that he placed his four sons in this In- 
stitution, where they all, in succession, received their train- 
ing under his personal inspection. Before he had suspected 
that he should be ever appointed, as he was, to the super- 
intendence of such an institution of learning, he had placed 
his eldest son at Princeton College as a student, and al- 
though he reposed the utmost confidence in that institution, 
he felt it his duty to recall him to Athens, where he should 
be under his own guidance and direction. It is a historical 
fact, true of all Institutions of learning, that their character, 
either for weal or woe, depends more upon the influence of 
the presiding officer than upon that of any other member of 
the Faculty. It is also noteworthy that this was true of all 
Presidents of Colleges during the times now under considera- 
tion in a greater degree than it is at i^resent. In any given 
Faculty there may have been more profoundly learned men, 
who were regarded by the outside world as more gifted in 
some respects, than the man who filled the chief position; 
but it cannot be questioned that he was by all expected to 
shape and systematize the entire policy of the Institution, 
and thus, by necessary consequence, he was held to a most 
rigid responsibility for the results of his administration of 
its aff'airs, both internal and external. If prosperity at- 
tended and success followed his theories when reduced to 
practice ; if his system of discipline should be productive of 
order, gentlemanly deportment, and obedience to law among- 
the students, and if confidence should be established in the 
Institution and its management, and this favorable opinion 
of the 23ublic should be manifested in its steadily-increasing 
patronage from year to year, then the credit w-ould be 



i 



His Influence in the Presidency 103 

almost universally accorded to him who was at the head of 
affairs. On the other hand, if the administration should 
be accompanied by the reverse of all these results; if the 
students should prove to be disorderly and ungentlemanlike, 
dissipated and idle, and all this should be followed by re- 
ports of annually diminished i^atronage, confidence would be 
lost and the President would be condemned as incapable 
and an unworthy incumbent of the office. Strictly speak- 
ing, this decision in regard to tiie head of the Institution 
might not be just, either in the case of success or failure. 
In the former he might have been vigorously seconded and 
sustained by p. Faculty whose several members wero a unit, 
presenting an unbroken front to all factious opposition, in 
which event the credit of success should have been shared 
with them, because, in this condition, success would be 
almost assured. Yet in a divided corps of instructors, who 
had private feelings to gratify opposed to his views, the best 
presiding officer ever in charge would find that he was 
weakened, and the institution might be forced into dissolu- 
tion. Even then the failure observed in the enterprise, in most 
instances, would be attributed to the president. Of the cor- 
rectness of this statement we might present abundant illustra- 
tion in institutions as they existed half a century since. Now, 
all this was well-known to Dr. AYaddel as the state of thin«-s 

o 

in general inseparable from such a position, and which ho 
might expect in assuming the presidency of any institution ; 
and 3'et, as no man was ever more sensible of the weight of 
resi^onsibility attached to such an office, so, on the other 
hand no man was ever less disposed to shrink from the dis- 
charge of a well ascertained duty by reason of the conse- 
quences. In this it is not the design of the writer to inti- 
mate that he was a man of imj^erious or despotic tempera- 
ment; that he was so wedded to his own opinions that he 
w^as determined to carry them out at all hazards and in de- 
spite of all opposition. His habit of asking wisdom from. 



104 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

a^bove was accompanied with the knowledge of the great 
fact, that the will of God was ordinarily communicated 
through men as his instruments. So he hearkened respect- 
fully to the opinions of his colleagues and others, and yielded 
to them all the weight and deference to which they were en 
titled. But it should be stated that he was highly favored 
in being connected with a class of wise and conservative 
counsellors during his administration, both in the Faculty 
and his more immediate circle of friends in the Board of 
Trustees. That he occasionally, in obedience to w4iat he be- 
lieved to be impressions made upon his mind by God's 
Sijirit, acted independently of human counsel, and some- 
times even in contravention of the previous action of the 
Paculty in w4iich ,he himself had fully concurred, is set forth 
in another passage of Dr. Church's letter: 

"It became necessary, as the Faculty believed, on a certain 
occasion, to pursue a course which a large portion of the 
students considered an unjustifiable interference with a 
society. A committee of the society notified the Faculty 
that it would be dangerous to attemjot to carry out the resolu- 
tion. This was considered a threat, and at once the Faculty 
determined to act with energy The action was to be that 
evening, immediately after prayers, in the chapel. Dr. 
"Waddel was as decided in his opinion as any member of 
the body, but as he entered the chapel a d jiibt came into 
his mind as to the prudence of the course adopted. He 
prayed most earnestly for both students and Faculty, and 
especially that the latter might be endowed with wisdom 
and prudence and grace. But when he closed the exercises, 
instead of leading the Faculty to carry out their resolution 
(as he had expected to do), he left the chapel and retired 
without an intimation to any one concerning his conduct. 
He afterwards informed me that he became fully convinced 
that the course which the Faculty had determined to pursue 
was not prudent, and he had not a doubt that his mind had 



Reminiscences. 105 

nnder,2fone this change in consequence of an intimation frcjm 
the Spirit of God. Subsequent developments clearly proved 
that, liad he persisted in endeavoring to effect the object of 
the Faculty, most serious, and probably melancholy, conse- 
quences would have ensued. A young man of desperate 
character, excited by intoxication, was pledged to defeat, at 
any expense, the attempts of the Faculty, and this he could 
have done under the circumstances without the probabihty 
of detection. It was generally acknowledged afterwards, 
that whatever influence controlled his mind, the result was 
most propitious." 

At this point in the narrative I can introduce, with great 
propriety, a valued contribution to the subject of my father's 
^•eneral character and administration of the government of 
the University during the term of service extending over the 
period from 1819 to 1829. It is furnished by Rev. S. G. 
Hillyer, D. D., a classmate of mine, and an intimate friend 
during our University course. Dr. Hillyer is an eminent 
minister of the Baptist Church of Georgia. He was ap- 
p)ointed soon after our graduation to the position of tutor in 
the University on account of his fine scholarship, and after 
that was elected to the Professorship of Rhetoric in Mercer 
Universit}", at Penfield, Ga., where he served Vvitli eminent 
success and ability. He has occupied pulpits of various im- 
portant churches of the Baptist denomination in Georgia^ 
and has spent a long life of consecrated toil in the great 
joint fields of mental, moral, and spiritual training and in- 
struction of his generation. Knowing his stores of informa- 
tion, his reliableness as a writer of the narrative of his re- 
miniscences, his impartiality and candor of judgment, his 
knowledge of human nature, and, above all, his devotion to 
the memory of my father, I applied to him for a statement 
of his estimate of his character, and for any facts which he 
might be able to recall from the review of the period of his 
connection with him as a student. He very kindly com- 



106 Moses AVaddel, D. r>. 

plied by furnishing me promptly and fully with such a con- 
tribution as I had asked for, with even more full and satis- 
factory minuteness than I could have expected. This nar- 
rative and estimate I now proceed to transcribe in his own 
words. 

Hev. Dr. S. G. Hillyer's Statement. 

"I will now try to give you some reminiscences of your 
noble father. First of all, let me tell you of his relation to 
our family. He and my father w^ere nearly of the same age, 
and they lived for 3'ears in the same neighborhood — mv 
father at old Petersburgh, in Elbert county, Ga., and Dr. 
Waddel over in South Carolina, at "Willington. Some busi- 
ness relations furnished opportunity for them to becomo 
acquainted with each other. I think also that my mother 
and grandmother w^ere personally acquainted with Dr. Wad- 
del at that early day. Be this as it may, they knew liim by 
character. Accordingly, when my father died, in 1820, and 
when it became the all-absorbing question with my mother 
what could be done for her children, she sought the advice 
of your father. She consulted him at Athens. His ad\ice 
was: Give them a Collegiate education at all hazards. He 
said : ' Give the boys an education, and 3'ou give them a 
possession they can never lose. It wdll always afford them 
means of support.' This advice accorded with my mother's 
wdshes, and accordingly arrangements were made at an 
early day to remove our family to Athens, where we enjoyed 
those advantages which have shaped our course through 
life. Your father would sometimes visit my mother and 
grandmother at our humble home near Athens. He was 
always kind to me. When I would occasionally go home 
with you it seemed to give him pleasure to entertain us Avith 
his humor and pleasantry ; and after my graduation he, of 
his own good wdll, put me in correspondence with a promi- 
nent citizen of Florida, Colonel Gamble, w^hich proved to be 
of great advantage to me. So much for his relations to us. 



Reminiscences. lOT 

No intelligent man could know your f atlier s life, character, 
and Avork without being impressed with the fact that he was 
indeed a great and a good man. He gave an impulse to the 
cause of education in South Carolina and Georgia which 
scarcely any other man at that time could have done. His 
school at Willington was- a brilliant success. Such men as 
John C. Calhoun, George McDuffie, George K. Gilmer, and 
Augustus B. Long-street received from him the early train- 
ing that made them the great men of their generation. In 
the year 1818 Dr. Waddell was called, and, in 1819, he ac- 
cepted the call to preside over our State University. I once 
heard him say that when he first entered upon his duties 
at Athens he found just seven students playing 'hide and 
seek ' in the rooms of the old college building. In three or 
four years the attendance had run iip to nearly or quite a 
hundred. In administrative ability he was jyretniiiiently 
the central figure in the Facult}'. During the time of his 
Presidency the college sent out a class of alumni whose 
lives illustrated not only the glory of their Alma Mater, but 
of the State in which they lived. Not only our own State, 
but Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas felt the influence for 
many years of that master spirit which presided over Frank- 
lin College from 1819 to 1829. In his domestic relations, 
his success was but the counterpart, on a more limited 
scale, of the distinction which crowned his public services. 
Of his large family, there was not one of whom a father 
might not be proud. His sons, in exalted moral worth, in 
high intellectual culture, and most attractive social quali- 
ties, had few equals and no superiors ; while his daughters, 
too, were adorned with the loveliness of a noble womanhood. 
As a theologian, your father was j^rofound and orthodox. 
As a sermonizer, he was methodical and exhaustive. His 
style was distinguished for its purity and for its perspicacity. 
Even the illiterate could understand him. A case in point 
came under my own knowledge. My grandmother had an 



108 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

old servant, who was a religious woman, but very ignorant. 
On a certain Sunday morning slie asked my grandmother to 
let her go to church that day. Grandmother said to her: 
*Why, Kachel, there is no place where there is j^reaching 
to-day but the College Chapel, and the President of the Col- 
lege will preach. You can't understand Dr. Waddel preach- 
ing tc all those learned folks in the chapel.' ' Never mind,' 
said the old woman ; ' please let me goV Consent w^as 
given, of course. By and bye she returned from church, 
full of the sermon she had heard. She said to my grand- 
mother that the sermon had done her good, and that she 
could understand it all She seemed to be delighted with 
wliat she had heard. Now, a compliment to your father's 
sermon from such a man as Dr. Olin was what might have 
been expected, but coming, as it did, from an ignorant old 
darkey, makes us think of IIuu of whom it w^as said ' the 
common people heard him gladly.' As a citizen. Dr. Wad- 
del was ever mindful of the j^ublic good. Though exempt 
by law, as a minister of the gospel, from the duty of serving 
on juries, yet he waived his privilege, and, when called on, 
w^ould take his place on the grand jury of the county. When 
we remember the important functions committed by our 
laws to that body, we can see that such a man as Dr. Wad- 
del could not fail to be eminently useful on our grand 
juries. His great intelligence, his love of country, and his 
high moral rectitude were just the qualities most needed in 
such bodies. Thus I have given you a very brief statement of 
my impressions of your father. I only wish I had space and 
.ability to do the subject justice. Still I trust it may afford 
-a few suggestions that may be useful to you in your pro- 
posed work. Allow me to give an anecdote of trivial im- 
portance, yet none the less illustrative of your father's ad- 
ministrative ability. A student had been guilty of some 
impropriety. Dr. Waddel sent for him and gave him a pri- 
vate lecture in his room. When he returned to his fellow- 



Methods of DiscrpuNE. 109 

students they were curious to know what had passed be- 
. tween him and the President. He put on quite an air of 
importance, and gave such an account of the interview as to 
make the impression that he had pretty successfully ' bul- 
hed ' the Doctor. I^J^ot long afterwards another student was 
sent for to the President's room. Remembering w^hat the 
former culprit had said, he concluded to play a similar 
game. Accordingly, as soon as the President opened the 
case the 3'oung man put on an air of offended surprise, and, in 
rather a haughty tone, began to ask why he w'as singled out 
for reprimand and — ; but before he had proceeded farther, 
the Doctor stopped him with a frown, saying: *My young 
friend, if you cannot speak to me in a more becoming man- 
ner than you have assumed, there is the door, and the sooner 
you take it the better.' The student saw at a glance that 
he was on the wrong tack^ and promptly changed his course. 
At once he made apologies, which Dr. Waddel so far ac- 
cepted as to give the lecture, which ^vas received with be- 
coming meekness. The student told me this story on him- 
self, and then added: 'Granby, when you hear tbe boys 
bragging how they have ''huUled' Dr. Waddel, 3-ou just 
quietly conclude that they are lying j for I tell you no stu- 
dent ever did it. It can't be done.' Other incidents, per- 
haps not so illustrative as the preceding, of his method, 
might be presented, but not less entertaining to the general 
reader. But I content myself with the general remark that 
his mode of discipline w^as peculiar to himself, and always 
successful." 

The foregoing is, according to the estimate of one of his 
pupils, who knew and esteemed him well, a truthful presen- 
tation of his personal and public character. I am sure that 
all the records of a man's life who serves the public for 
many years are rarely ever given to the general reader. 
But I am equally sure that a biography professing to be 
true and faithful rests for its value upon a minute detail of 



110 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

matters of private interest rather than iij)on eulogistic state- 
ments of great qualities, as they are viewed by the partiahty 
of his friends. The interspersing of incidents such as are 
here mentioned does not detract from, but serves strikingly 
to illustrate the nature of that practical and faithful admin- 
istration of disciiDline which was a marked characteristic of 
Dr. Waddel. 

But the term for which he had originally made his own 
calculations to serve the University was drawing near its 
close. He believed that the w^ork appointed by Providence 
for him to do in the University and in Athens was drawing 
near its end, and he knew that what remained to be done 
in the future would be accomplished with comparative ease 
by those who should come after him. He rejoiced to know 
the fact that, in God's pro\ddence, he had been successful 
as a pioneer in the great work of preparing the way for 
others. He was not the man to boast, but surely his was a 
pardonable satisfaction in the retrospect presented in con- 
templating his past ten years of successful labor and trial. 
He had found a fallen Institution lying low in apparently 
irretrievable desolation. The number of students present 
on his arrival he found to be only seven, all told ! He found 
that the public had become dead to all interest in the insti- 
tution, and almost lioj)eless of its resuscitation. He found 
a straggling little hamlet stretching along the pubhc high- 
way, with no prospect of revival and enlargement. To give 
a description of the condition of things in Athens we may 
adopt Dr. Hull's language as the true record by one whose 
childhood, youth, and honored age had been spent upon the 
spot: "Prior to 1820 there v/ere no improvements west of 
Lumpkin street. . . . All that part of the town was in 
woods, not a stick amiss." Such is a graj)hic description of 
what was then the seat of the State University. But a de- 
cade had wrought wonders in the condition of the University 
and of the town of Athens. Dr. Waddel was now looking 



Athens and the University. Ill 

forward to his retirement from this scene, in which he had 
formed a conspicuous figure, and where he had acted a 
prominent part. He was about to leave the University erect 
and triumphant over all its disabilities. In its halls he 
would leave an able and efficient and accomplished Faculty, 
under the leadership of a tried and approved chief execu- 
tive. Instead of seven students, he had been j)ermitted to 
witness the annual arrival of multitudes of the youth of 
Georgia and of the neighboring States, seeking the benefits 
of its open and ever-flowing fountains of knowledge. In- 
stead of a wrecked vessel, it was now in full sail for the 
haven of permanent success. It was the pride and hope of 
a gratified people, and was holding out its attractions to 
the surrounding States, and rising daily in its reputation as 
a safe and trustworthy dispensing agent of Christian educa- 
tion. As he contemplated these vast improvements in the 
University, which had resulted more immediately from his 
personal comiection with it, he could not but be aware of 
the corresponding changes in the prospects of the town as 
equally certain and direct results of the prosperity of the 
University. Dr. Hull's testimony may be adduced again, 
and it is to this effect. Going back to the history of the 
University in its earlier progress, he writes : 

"For a quarter of a century at least, the interests of 
Athens and of the University went hand in hand ; they rose 
or fell together. Indeed, one was nothing without the 
other. At one time the income of the institution was so low 
as to leave President Meigs alone to instruct all the classes 
in every department of science. So the College came very 
near the gates of death, and the town had but little more 
vitahty; so the College sickened and the town languished." 

Accordingly, after ten years of unexampled prosperity 
and success for the University, it was not at all wonderful 
that the town of Athens should also be increased in popula- 
tion and in the addition to the extent of territory over which 



112 Moses Waddel, T>. D. 

it spread. Every department of business was speedily filled 
with active workers, aud every profession was represented, 
while many " substantial families " were attracted to the 
place for its educational advantages. Those who came, not 
content with coming for that purpose alone, became perma- 
nent residents of Athens, and built fine houses, which were 
ornaments of architecture. The healthfulness of the place 
also determined many wealthy lower country planters to re- 
move and settle in the town. In this way it became one of 
the most elegant and attractive places in Georgia, and in- 
deed of the entire South. The contemplation of these re- 
markable changes, wrought within so short a period, and 
all tending to the elevation of the country and of the State 
at large, must naturally have been productive of the purest 
gratification to the heart and mind of the man whom God 
in his providence had made his instrument in the work ac- 
complished. But in this review of the past Dr. "Waddel's 
chastened Christian principle did not allow him to indulge 
the reflection that might have arisen in the mind of one who 
should contrast the dead past with this hopeful present, 
" What a grand work have I performed / " but he could not 
lose sight of the true source of all success, and feel, as he 
did, ''What hath God wrought! " 

He had also succeeded in an object which lay very near 
his heart, a private and personal matter, and which entered 
into the consideration of the question of his acceptance of 
the call to the Presidency — the superintendence of the col- 
legiate education of his four sons, already mentioned. His 
eldest son, James P. Waddel, having been recalled by him 
from Princeton College, New Jersey, after his entrance 
there as a student, was matriculated in the University of 
Georgia soon after the institution was reorganized, and was 
graduated in the third class under Dr. Waddel's adminis- 
tration. The class of 1820, which was the first to graduate 
under him, consisted of but three. The class of 1821 also 



I 



His Sons. 11^ 

numbered three, and there were nine members in the class 
of 1822, of which James P. Waddel was one. His standing 
was among- the foremost of a very excellent class, and on 
Commencement day he delivered the Latin salutatory, the 
oration always assigned to the second honor-man of the 
graduating class. It was doubtless very gratifying to Dr. 
Waddel that his son was thus honored in closing his Colle^-e 
course ; yet it was still more pleasing to him to find that he 
was chosen immediately to fill a tutor's place in the Faculty. 
In this position he served for two years, giving entire satis- 
faction. It is only to be added at this point in regard to- 
him that teaching was his chosen and life-long employment, 
thereafter having been subsequently elected Professor of 
Ancient Languages in the University, in which office he-' 
served twenty years. Dr. Waddel's sons. Rev. Isaac W. 
Waddel and William W\ Waddel, M. D., were graduated in 
the class of 1823. The former entered the ministry of the 
Presbyterian Church, and labored acceptably and usefully 
in the States of South Carolina and Georgia. He died in 
Marietta, Ga., in 1849, in the forty-fifth year of his age. 
W. W. Waddel, of the same class, embarked in the medical 
profession, and, after pursuing preliminary studies with Dr. 
Hull as his preceptor in Athens, he spent about eighteen 
months in attendance upon medical lectui'es in Philadelphia. 
Entering upon the practice of medicine with enthusiasm, he 
soon reached the highest rank in the profession, and was 
elected to a chair in the faculty of the Medical College of 
Augusta, which he declined. In the hope of recovering his 
own broken health, he removed, in 1833, to Tallahassee, 
Fla., and after he had established himself in an extensive 
and lucrative practice, died in 1843, universally lamented, in 
his thirty-seventh year. The writer, the youngest son, 
graduated in 1829, in his eighteenth year, and all that may 
be srdd of him just here is that he has pursued the same 
coui'se in pulpit and class-room which was his father's life- 



114 Moses "Waddel D. D. 

work for so long a time. At this Commencement, being tlie 
tenth at which Dr. Waddel had presided, on the 5th of Au- 
gust, 1829, he tendered his resignation, delivering a fare- 
well address to the Board of Trustees in public on the ros- 
trum at the close of the exercises of Commencement. To 
this address General Edward Harden, of Savannah, re- 
sponded on the part of tho Board. His resignation occurred 
very soon after he had entered his sixtieth year. It was ne- 
cessary that he should reside in Athens for some months 
after his retirement from office, that he might wind up his 
private affairs and make comfortable provision for his family 
at his South Carolina home, which he still owned, at the 
.seat of the Willington Academy, now closed, where he pro- 
posed to end his days in peace and rest. Accordingly, he 
■continued to make Athens headquarters for six months or 
more ; and in the latter part of February, 1830, lie removed 
with his family to the place he had left more f.han ten years 
previously, where he had laboriously spent his earlier and 
more vigorous years in public work. On the inorning of his 
departure, as his carriage stood at the front gate, and he 
was about to leave on his journey, a long procession was 
seen approaching, which proved to be composed of students 
of the University, their object being to take formal leave of 
bim and to bid him farewell. One of the number, who had 
been chosen by his fellow-students for the purpose, deliv- 
'Cred a suitable address, to which Dr. Waddel responded in 
appropriate terms. Thus was closed the important work, 
"which he was permitted to round vip in a manner so agree- 
able, leaving the scene of his labors, followed only by the 
truest sentiments of loving reverence and the most exalted 
lappreciation of the services he had rendered to those with 
"whom he had been associated. 

On a review of his term of service, so pleasantly closed, 
there come up in memory other points of interest, some of 
them worthy of record. They have reference to the Chris- 



Christian Influence. 115 

tian influence brought to bear u^Don the university, the 
town, the country, the State, during his administration. 
At the time under consideration there was cleaiiy observa- 
ble a sentiment beginning to prevail that the church at 
large should inaugurate more direct and active efforts to in- 
troduce a more decided and aggressive influence of a Chris- 
tian character into the system of pubhc education. This, 
however, could be effected only in an indirect method as to 
the University in the interval between 1819 and 1829. It is 
only necessary to refer the reader to the establishment of 
Mercer University, at Penfield; Oglethorpe University, at 
Midway, and Emory College, at Oxford, as the result of 
this principle of action on the part of several churches. 
These institutions, nearly all of them, still survive, after 
triumphing over all their early difficulties, and are now ac- 
comphshing a grand work for church and State in their sev- 
eral spheres. Nor let it be regarded as claiming more than 
is due to the old University to assert that these noble insti- 
tutions are all of them indebted to some extent to her for 
the training of some of their best and wisest presidents and 
professors. So that, in the absence of such colleges and 
universities as those above mentioned under denominational 
control, the University of Georgia was enabled to accom- 
plish a great w^ork in this direction by having laid down 
clearly that, in its course of instruction, even in literature 
and science, and in the system of discipline adopted, no 
principle would be tolerated or suggested that could alienate 
the student from the system of Christian truth. It was 
furthermore distinctly understood of the policy of the gov- 
erning Board that, in the character and example of every in- 
structor, there should be a living and practical illustration 
of what has been happily called unconscious Christian tui- 
tion. This fundamental system characterized the whole 
pohey of the institution, without the slightest attempt to in- 
troduce or obtrude any element of discord that might 



116 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

awaken the prejudice of any section of the church. In 
more recent times, other incidental movements have been 
developed and brought into active exercise, which have ex- 
erted a wholesome moral power over the minds and morals 
of students, so wisely constituted as to be admissible as 
readily into the State institutions as into the church col- 
leges. Among these, and more prominent than all others, 
•we may mention the "Young Men's Christian Association," 
which is found everywhere in successful career. At the 
time under consideration this voluntary association was un- 
known in the region from which the University drew it& 
students ; yet who can read its history and fail to recognize 
the fact, that even without the numerous adjuncts of a moral 
and Christian character to aid in controlling and influencing 
the students, without those means and ai)pliances now so 
common and effective, that there was then a pervasive power 
of Christian influence felt through the entire student body ? 
It held a conservative restraint over even those who had no 
religious predilections, preventing all violent manifestations 
of vice and disorder, and frowning effectually upon all forms 
of infidelity. This was not the full effect of this indirect 
Christian power; it was not confined in its results to the 
student community, but extended over the town of Athens 
and the neighboring country. True, we had no regularly 
organized Christian association among the students, but 
there was in every class a goodly number of pious young 
men, some having in view the Christian ministry, others 
members of the churches, consistent in their walk and stand- 
ing, who held prayer-meetings among themselves and opened 
their meetings to general attendance. These candidates for 
the ministry were, in many cases, superintendents of the 
Sabbath-schools, and were in the habit of teaching classes 
in them, besides being engaged often in holding prayer- 
meetings at private houses in the country and in the town 
on Sabbath evenings when the churches were closed. Many 



i 



His Plans Fully Endorsed. 117 

of those who subsequently entered the ministry and became 
prominent as preachers of the gospel pursued their literary 
course and were graduated from the Universit3\ This fact 
goes far to confirm the statement, that a wholesome Chris- 
tian influence was felt and encouraged in that institution. 
It may be easily p^athered, from a cursory perusal of the 
Centennial Catalogue of the University, that of the number 
of graduates during the ten years of which we write, and 
the three years after 1829, during which the graduates 
closed their course, begun between 1819 and 1829, there 
were more than forty who entered the gospel ministry. 
Some of these became eminently useful ministers of their 
several churches, and not a few, eminent for learning and 
high Christian character, became presidents and professors 
in Southern institutions of learning, and others, again, pious 
laymen in private life. 

The foregoing statement of facts, under the circumstances, 
shows that the University, although a State institution, has 
not been altogether barren of greatly beneficial results to 
the cause of Christian education, to which we uiay make two 
additional remarks : 

1. It would be unjust to others if the writer should be 
understood as designing to attribute these results solely to 
Dr. Waddel ; for while it is true, as has already been shown, 
that more depends upon the presiding officer of any institu- 
tion than upon any other person connected with it at the 
time (as it respects the character of the influence it exerts), 
at the same time success cannot be assured to his best and 
most strenuous efforts if, in attempting to carry out his pohcy, 
he must encounter opposition from the authorities or from 
colleagues. On the other hand, it is a comparatively easy 
task to carry into effect a favorite theory, and to imbue the 
entire body with his views, provided he is heartily sustained 
by those with Avhom he is associated. This was eminently 
true of the administration of Dr. Waddel. Those who 



118 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

labored with him in this arduous enterprise of building up 
an institution of learning saw at once that his views were 
sound, and that he deserved their confidence ; and so, appre- 
ciating his ideas at their j)roper value, they stood by him in 
all his toils and trials, and aided him in the accomplishment 
of his cherished theories. Hence that success in the re- 
estabhshment of a fallen institution, and the development 
of its inherent possibilities into real and practical results 
the highest and most beneficial chaiacter, although reflect- 
ing merited credit and honor upon him, must necessarily be 
shared by others who labored with him. Let it also be re- 
corded, that he was not the man to detract from another his 
due meed of honor, or to forget to bestow it upon those who 
won it. 



CHAPTEK XVI. 

Death of Mks. Waddei.. — Manner of Life in Ketieement. — Chueches 
HE Served, — His Associates Among his MinisteriaIj Brethren. — 
Last Sickness and Death. ' 

THE opening Spring season of 1830 found him once more 
established at WiUington, S. C. It has been stated in 
a former chapter, that, on account of malarial influences, he 
had removed from his first settlement to the little hamlet 
distant about a mile south. There he found and occupied a 
new and commodious dwelling, where he spent his last days 
of rest until overtaken by disease. Here began those peace- 
ful years, in freedom from heavy public responsibihty, to 
which he had been so long looking with most earnest long- 
ings. Being now no longer in the receipt of a salary, ade- 
quate and promptly paid, his main earthly dejDendence for 
income in the future rested in the cultivation of a farm, 
which he kept in operation, and which yielded quite a suffi- 
cient support for himself and his family. One remark will 
be here inserted as completing his j)rivate history and shed- 
ding some additional light on his character. Dr. "Waddel 
was a slave-holder, and h^.s servants were the laborers on his 
farm, under the superintendence of an overseer ; but, like 
many an owner of slaves in those days, he was a most 
humane master. He rarely ever purchased a slave. The 
beginning of this class of his property came to him through 
marriage. When, therefore, his female servants became the 
wives of neighboring man-servants not belonging to his 
estate, he bought the latter for humanity's sake ; and so of 
the case when his men-servants took wives from abroad, he 
pui'chased their Avives, his object being to bring them to the 

119 



120 Moses Waddel, D. D 

same home. He trained the children of his colored families 
as he did his own, by catechetical instruction on Sabbath 
evenings. He was so humane in his treatment of the ser- 
vants on his farm that no cruel treatment was ever known or 
permitted, and every r-easonable liberty was allowed them. 
So generally was this known to be a principle of his man- 
agement that the remark was once reported as being made 
by a large planter of less strict notions on the subject, that 
"Dr. Waddel's treatment of his slaves was calculated to 
ruin all the negroes in the neighborhood." The reply to 
this reproachful criticism was : " AVell, I suppose I will be 
able to answer for that." He, therefore, w^as not w4iat was 
known as a very successful planter. Still, while he was 
always liberal in his mode of living, and ^^ossessed a good 
estate, wholly unencumbered, by his economical management 
of his private affairs he made his family comfortal>le, with- 
out superfluous luxury. 

Dr. Waddel had scarcely become settled in his new home- 
stead when he w-as called, in the providence of God, to part 
with his beloved wife, the mother of his children, who had 
been the devoted companion of thirty laborious years of his 
life, the sharer of all his joys and sorrows, and his earthly 
support and comfort in all his trials. On the 4th of April, 
1830, on the Lord's day, Mrs. Eliza Woodson Waddel closed 
her life of bodily suffering, surrounded by a weeping and 
devoted famil}^ and entered into that " rest that remaineth 
for the people of God." For many years she had been 
strugghng with disease and pain, which baffled the skill of 
the eminent physicians who attended her, striving to miti- 
gate her sufferings. The disease from which she had been 
so long a patient sufferer had, within a few years previous to 
her death, developed into cancer, and, just two years before, 
she had undergone a surgical operation, performed by Drs. 
Anthony and Watkins, two eminent surgeons of Augusta, 
Oa., by which she had been, to some extent, relieved ; but 



i 



Continued Interest in TEACHma. 121 

the relief proved to be only temporary and partial, and can- 
cer renewed its ravages at some other ]Doint of the system, 
^nd its deadly work soon proved to be beyond the reach of 
remedies. Constantly waxing more and more feeble, the 
-wasted body yielded to the intolerable violence of the fearful 
malady, until, overborne by it, the ransomed spirit aban- 
doned " the earthly house of this tabernacle " in its dissolu- 
iion, and entered the building of God, the "house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens," a mansion jprepared for 
her by the Saviour. 

Part of Dr. Waddel's plan in returning to South Cajohna 
was to devote himself more continuously to preaching, and 
to make that the chief work of his last days. He never did 
wholly divest himself of his interest in that other depart- 
ment of usefulness to which he had given so many years of 
his ] ie — practical teaching. While, therefore, he did not 
propose to enter the class-room himself professionally, his 
purpose was to have a school opened at once under his gene- 
ral superintendence, and to have the duties of daily instruc 
tion performed by another. On the 1st day of March, ac- 
cordingly, such a school was opened and placed under the 
<lirect charge of his son, a youth not quite eighteen years of 
age, and it was continued afterwards under the joint charge 
of this teacher and the eldest son of Dr. Waddel, until it was 
closed by the removal of both to other fields of labor. So 
long as this school was in operation Dr. Waddel was deeply in- 
terested in its success, using his influence in its favor, doing 
no teaching except incidentally, but giving the benefit of his 
wise counsel and long experience. The school prospered 
for a time, and was patronized extensively throughout the 
States of South Carolina and Georgia; but the providences 
of God were such as to bring it to a close, as may be ex- 
plained hereafter. MeauAvhile, his prominent purpose of 
employing his time mainly in preaching was in successful 
progress. He was very soon placed in charge of the Will- 



122 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

ington church, near his residence, and of Eocky River 
church, some seventeen miles distant. To these two churches 
he preached regularly, as Stated Supply, on alternate Sab- 
haths; but while he punctually and promptly met all his 
appointments with them on ordinary occasions, he was by 
no means confined to them as his field of ministerial work. 

De. Waddel as a Peace-Maker. 

As an illustration of Dr. Waddel's peculiarity of tempera- 
ment as a "peace-maker," the following incident was fur- 
nished me by the Rev. J. O. Lindsay, D. D., of Due West, 
Abbeville Co., S. C. The Dr. is one of the successors of Dr. 
Waddel in the ministry at Willington, and this case was 
communicated to him, not long since, by a very aged gen- 
tleman (over ninety years old) who, sixty years ago, was one 
of Dr. Waddel's congregation, and a member of the Willing- 
ton church. The Dr., in his thoughtful kindness, felt tliat 
it would afford me gratification to know of it, and I am 
greatly obhged to him for having comziiunicated it to me. 

"About the year referred to (1831) there was a notorious 
controversy in progress between the Arminians and Cal- 
vinists in the county of Abbeville, and consequently much 
bitter feeling was excited and expressed. Glenn was the 
name of a Methodist minister, who had charge of a church, 
and near to him was a church of the denomination of Se- 
ceders, of which a minister, by name Porter, w'as pastor, 
the name of this church being 'Cedar Springs.* For 
several weeks these ministers had given prominence to the 
'Five Points' in their pulpit services. What one would 
say in his sermon would be reported by some hearer to the 
other, and the latter would reply to it on the next Sabbath. 
This state of things continued for some time — at least until 
a great deal of excitement had been stirred up, and at 
length it was determined by these two ministers and their 
friends, to hold a public debate on the matters controverted 



As A Peace-Maker. 125 

between them. This meeting was appointed to be held at 
Cedar Springs. The commimity was greatly excited, and a 
large crowd was expected to be present. Dr. Waddel had 
heard of all this, and w^as impressed with the conviction that 
such a debate w^ould do no good, but might result in much 
evil. Accordingly he convened his Session, and laid the 
matter before his faithful counsellors, and asked them to 
consider whether they could not do something to prevent 
the great scandal to true religion, which he felt assured 
would result from the debate, if the expected progi'amme 
should be carried out. After some discussion it was de- 
cided to request Dr. Waddel to attend the contemplated 
meeting, and endeavor to stop the debate, and allay the 
bitter feeling that had been aroused. Two or three of the 
elders were also appointed to accompany Dr. Waddel. 

"On the day appointed they attended at Cedar Springs, 
and found a large and excited crowd present. Dr. Waddel 
and his elders got together the ministers, Glenn and Porter, 
with a few of their respective friends, at a private conference 
before the public services began. Dr. Waddel presented 
his views on the proposed debate. He was firmly persuaded 
that it would intensif}^ the bitter feeling, of which there had 
already been too much aroused, and would not advance the 
cause of true religion. Considerable discussion of the matter 
ensued, and Dr. Waddel succeeded in impressing his views 
upon the two ministers and their friends, and it was at last 
decided to give uj) the expected debate. 

"Dr. Waddel was asked to preach to the large assemblage, 
which he did, and the occasion passed off pleasantly and 
l^rofitably ; far more so than it probably would have done 
if the debate had been held. 

"A profound impression was made upon the community 
by this incident. Dr. Waddel's clear views, quiet dignity, 
and Christian deportment, as well as the sermon preached, 
were long remembered and talked of in the homes of both 



124 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

the Seceders and the Methodists of the whole region; and 
Br. Waddel and his elders felt that they had done good 
service that day as peace-makers." 

Occasionally he visited distant churches in the districts of 
Newberry, Laurens, and Anderson, adjoining Abbeville, to 
assist his brethren in communion meetings, and sometimes 
to vacant and destitute places. As he resided not far from 
the Savannah river, the dividing boundary line between 
South Carolina and Georgia, he was often invited to visit 
the churches in Lincoln county, Ga., which lay opposite his 
residence, where he had many old friends. Yet he always 
felt peculiar interest in Willington and Eocky Eiver churches, 
as his appropriate fields of pastoral work. Two things are 
w^orthy of note in tliis connection: first, he did a good deal 
of pastoral visiting among the people of his charge; second, 
these visits were hardly ever closed without his engaging in 
prayer with the families visited. His journal (kept through 
his life until he could no longer hold a pen) records many 
visits to the bedsides of his dying parishioners and the fune- 
ral services conducted by him. When the needful travel is 
taken into consideration, it is not too much to say that the 
work he performed was fully as faithful and laborious as the 
work of most pastors of our city and town churches. He 
records thirty-three marriage ceremonies performed by him 
in the space of three or four years in the region round about 
him. He, of course, conducted communion meetings with 
both of his churches at regular intervals. These meetings 
began on Thursday or Friday previous to the communion 
Sabbath, and consisted of two sermons daily, and sometimes 
one at night, and the meeting did not close generally on 
Sabbath, but there was always a service on Monday, which 
was considered the closing service. None of these com- 
munion occasions ever occurred without the presence of 
some neighboring minister, to assist the preacher in charge 
of the church where the meeting was held. These gather- 



His Last Days. 125 

ings were always liappy and joyful iu their influence upon 
him and liis people. Those ministers with whom he loved 
to interchange these fraternal visitations were such men as 
Rev. Dr. Barr, of Upper Long Cane church; Eev. Hugh 
Dixon, of Rock church; Rev. David Humphreys, of Ander- 
son District. Sometimes he had with him brethren from 
distant -psn'ts of Georgia. Among them were Rev. Drs. 
Church and Hoyt, of Athens, and Rev. Dr. Talmage, of Au- 
gusta. Rev. Dr. Daniel Baker once conducted a protracted 
meeting at Willington church. Besides, both of his churches 
were visited by the agents of the Boards of Foreign and 
Domestic Missions, the American Bible Society, and the 
Colonization Society. It is seen from this running record 
that his people, though strictly country churches, enjoyed 
every possible privilege and advantage of a religious nature 
possible to be obtained in the country at that period of our 
history. As he grew older, however, he often found himself 
fatigued by the long journeys he frequently performed, and 
sometimes the inclement weather to which he was neces- 
sarily exposed j^roduced temporary illness. 

The circumstances under which his first attack of paraly- 
sis occurred are well remembered by this writer. Dr. Wad- 
del had just returned from one of his preaching tours on the 
evening of September 5, 1836, the Rev. Isaac AV. \Yaddel 
and the writer being at his house on a visit. AVe retired 
early in the evening, after tea, observing nothing unusual in his 
appearance or manner. About the dawn of the 6th of Sep- 
tember, as the brothers awoke in the upper chamber, where 
they had passed the night, they heard a very unnatural 
sound that seemed to proceed from his bed-room, :.ppr.?'cntly 
an ineffectual effort on his part to articulate. Hastening 
down, they found him still in bed. In broken accents he 
managed to communicate that he had, with great difficulty, 
attempted to rise, but found that he had lost the use of his 
right side entirely. His faithful family physician and friend, 



126 Moses Waddel, D. D. 

Dr. Nathaniel Harris, a near neighbor, was speedily sum- 
moned, and, on examination, pronounced it a combination 
of paralysis and apoplexy. He rapidly sank into a stupor, 
and as Dr. Harris declared there was pressing necessity for 
a consulting physician in this alarming state of the case, 
Dr. Richardson, a very eminent physician of Elbert county, 
Oa., was sent for and arrived at the close of the day. Under 
the skillful treatment adopted by these two physicians, he 
was so far relieved, after lingering for three weeks in a per- 
fectly helpless condition, during a part of v* hich he was in a 
comatose state, he began slowly to rally, and was gradually 
restored to consciousnes and to some degree of ai'ticulate- 
ness of speech. But to all around him it was very readily 
seen that the light of his once clear intellect was now 
clouded, and that he w^as but a shattered wreck of his for- 
mer self; so he lingered from the 6th of September, 1836, 
to the 21st of July, 1840 — three years ten months and fif- 
teen days. These last years were spent partly at his home 
in Willington, kindly cared for. He was able to walk with 
a slow and unsteady gait, and he rode a great deal of the 
time when the weather was fine, having a com foi table car- 
riage and a pair of gentle horses, with a faithful body-ser- 
vant, who attended on him wherever he went. This kind of 
life continued until toward the close of the year, at which 
time all of his children, by previous concert, met at his 
home for a re-union, that, in all probabihty, would be the 
last they should ever enjoy in his presence, considering the 
condition of his health and the widely-scattered places of 
their several homes. Then came his final earthly removal. 
His estate was equitably distributed, reserving an ample 
support for him and provision for his comfort. He aban- 
doned his old home and removed to the residence of his 
eldest son, Professor James P. "Waddel, in Athens, Ga., 
w^here his last days passed, as peacefully and happily as, 
under his personal and physical condition, was possible. It 



His Last Days. 127 

seemed a kind arrangement of Divine Providence that liis 
closing period of life should be cast in such cu'cumstances 
of rest and freedom from care and responsibility. There 
he was placed in the midst of old scenes of his former toils 
and cares in happy unconsciousness of both, surrounded by 
many old friends who visited him as of old, adding some- 
thing to his simple and childlike enjoyment. Day by day 
his hold upon the interests of this world was waxing more and 
more feeble, until, on the moi'ning of July 21st, as the dawn 
was lighting up the scene and banishing the shades of 
night, he gently and calmly sank into that dreamless sleej) 
from which he was never again to awake until the mornino- 
of the resuiTection, when "the Lord himself shall descend 
from heaven ^ith a shout, with the voice of the archangel 
and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise." 



MEMORIAL RECORD 

OF THE 

LIFE, LABORS AND CHARACTER 

OF 

WILLIAM HENRY WADDEL, 

PROFESSOE OF ANCIENT LANGUAGES 

IN THE 

UNIVEESITY OF GEOEGIA 



129 



i 



WILLIAM HENRY WADDEL 



AS a fitting sequel to the foregoing biography of Dr. 
Moses Waddel, in which is inckided a sketch of the hfe, 
character, and labors of Professor James Pleasants "Waddel 
as an educator, I feel that it would be unjust to the memory 
of one who inherited the capacity and adorned, by his brief 
but distinguished life-work, the family name in their ances- 
tral career as educators, to omit the following sketch of 
Professor William Henr}^ AVaddel, the grandson of the for- 
mer and the son of the latter; for while it is a copy of the 
tribute to his memory adopted by his brethi-en of the Ses- 
sion, or bench of elders, of the Presbyterian church of 
Athens, Ga., it is a truthful portraiture of his life and 
labors in the same department of honorable and useful ef- 
fort. The obituary is introduced in the words following, 
Yiz. : 

" September 29, 1878. 
"At the close of public worship to-day, and during the 
officers' prayer- meeting, a joint meeting of the elders and 
deacons of the church was held, the Kev. C. W. Lane, D. D., 
Pastor, presiding, when the committee appointed heretofore, 
through Mr. Howell Cobb, submitted their report on the 
character and death of Professor AViDiam Henry Waddel. 
After the reading of the report, on motion of Mr. William 
L. Mitchell, it was adopted and ordered to be spread on the 
minutes of the session, and copies furnished Mrs. Waddel, 
the widow, and Miss Waddel, the sister, and the Southerii 
Presbyterian^ and it is as follows : 

131 



132 Professor William Henry Waddel. 

"Professor William Henry Waddel was born April 28, 
1834, at Willington, Abbeville District, S. C, and died at 
Milford, Ya., September 18, 1878. He was graduated from 
the University of Georgia, August, 1852, with the degree of 
A. B. Prom 1853 to 1858 he was a tutor in the University 
of Georgia; from 1858 to 18G0, adjunct Classical Professor; 
from 18G0 to 1872, Profesp.or of Ancient Languages; from 
1872 to 1877, Professor of the Latin Language and Litera- 
ture, and from 1877 till his death, Professor of Greek and 
Latin. He made a profession of faith July 21, 1855, and 
was ordained an elder in the Presbyterian church, Athens, 
Ga., October 27, 18G6, not long after his election as a dea- 
con. His death was sudden. Peturning from a trip north- 
ward for the improvement of his health, he was taken sick 
on the train, left the car at Milford, Va., called for medical 
aid, grew rapidly worse, and, in less than an hour, expired. 
His remains reached this city on Saturday, September 21, 
1878, and, amid the tolling of the church bells, were borne 
to the cemetery. On Sabbath morning a large congrega- 
tion assembled in the University Chapel, which had been 
draped with mourning for the occasion. Pastors and churches 
of the city, sharing a common grief, met together to parti- 
cipate in the memorial services of the day. The introduc- 
tory services having been conducted by the Eev. Dr. Tucker, 
late Chancellor of the University, and the Eev. Dr. Potter, 
pastor of the First Methodist chui'ch, a funeral discourse 
was delivered by the Eev. Dr. Lane, followed by an address 
by Eev. Dr. Lipscomb, formerly chancellor of the University. 

"It was a Sabbath of touching recollections and of heart- 
felt sorrow ; for he whom we then mourned had been long 
and closely associated in all our thoughts with Sabbath 
worship and holy duties. Nor can our affections render 
him a truer or tenderer tribute than to connect his memory 
with that blessed day which casts its resplendent light back- 
ward to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and forward to 



Memorial Resolutions. 133 

the 'rest' that 'remaineth.' No one could know Professor 
Waddel without feeling the force of his nature. It was a 
nature positive in eYerj element of its constitution, so direct, 
so free from hesitancy and the pause of irresolution, as to 
impress every one with the instant conviction that it was 
the fundamental quality of his inner being. The quick 
energy of his intellect, the ready and vigorous will, the 
prompt use of hi^ resources, were not so much acquired 
habits as a native endowment fresh from the hand of God, 
and fitting his servant for earnest and decisive activity in 
every sphere to which Providence called him. A thoroughly 
self-determined man, he always relied, under God, on his 
own judgment and the supremacy of his chosen purpose to 
accomiDlish an end in view. With others he worked steadily 
and cordially. His sympathies moved freely in any direc- 
tion that promised benefit to the church and the community. 
But in every enterprise of usefulness, and especially in the 
routine of private duty, that tests more than anything else 
the sense of personal responsibihty, the marked character- 
istic of this excellent man was the complete control that his 
thoughts and sentiments, as an individual, had over his ac- 
tions. Free from those excesses which so often mark a mind 
of great decision, his strength of will never ran into wilfulness, 
nor into that sharp insistence on self that abases hearty co- 
operation with others. Though highly cultivated, he had a 
matter-of-fact intellect, that was in striking harmony with 
this distinctive cast of his nature. He had none of those 
illusions which so frequently mar culture and talent. His 
tastes, admiration, sentiments were all shaped towards 
whatever was obvious and i^ractical. He indulged in no ex- 
travagance of thought. He had no unreasonable expecta- 
tions, as it respected either other persons or himself; but, 
with a precision eminently wise and sagacious, he measured 
the duties, tasks, and responsibiUties of life, and then set 
himself, with an unflinching resolution, to meet their obli< 



134 Pkofessok William Henry Waddel. 

gations to the utmost scope of his ability. His natural tern- 
jDerament was singularly impressible. He was quicli to feel, 
and feel keenly. Struggling against disease nearly all his 
life, he never allowed those involuntary moods which spring 
from intensity of nervous action to overrule, or even ta 
weaken, his convictions of duty. Often these shadows lay 
upon him, bat they affected his devotion to his duties no 
more than a passing cloud leaves its image on a summer 
landscape. His regular attendance on all the services of 
the church, week day as well as Sabbath ; his unvarying fi- 
delity for so many years to tho Sabbath-school and to the 
young men's Eible class; his scrupulous care as to the man- 
ner in which all his w^ork w^as prepared, even to the smallest 
detail ; and his constant and eager solicitude to build him- 
self up by means of toil and sacrifice to a higher and more 
consecrated manhood in Christ Jesus : all these were signal 
features of his character and life, known and appreciated 
by the whole membership of the church. A more trust- 
worthy man; one more intent on serving all the interests of 
Christianity in the offices of the church and in the outward 
field of religious activity; one more reliable for his share in 
bearing the burdens and meeting the exigencies of personal 
and official trust, has never lived in our midst. And espe- 
cially as an office-bearer in the church will his example sur- 
vive in our memory and affections. Here the grace of 
Christ, the head of the church, shone forth in him with a 
lustre, growing brighter as his years multiplied. Here he 
w^as 'instant in season and out of season.' Here he was 
ready for 'every good word and work,' and here most truly 
may it be said of him : 

' ' ' Thy heart, 
The lowliest duties on herself did lay, ' 

"One of Professor Waddel's most striking qualities was 
his profound sense of the supreme importance of truthful- 
ness in everything. It was a quality of intellect no less 



Memorial Resolutions. 135 

tlian of his moral nature, resting on that deep instinct of 
reality which was so consj)icuous in his organization. All 
the virtues that group themselves around this vital centre, 
such as honesty, candor, frankness, were exhibited con- 
stantly in his intercourse with society. And the same ex- 
cellencies distinguished his Christian experience. To deal 
sincerely and faithfully with himself; to protect his judg- 
ment from the intrusions of imagination; to guard his con- 
science from the flattery of false hopes and the deceits of 
self-love, and to know his heart, as that heart was always be- 
neath God's all-searching eye ; tliis was the purpose that 
always seemed to lie nearest his soul. Such a man, brought 
under the j)C)wer of the Holy Ghost, could not be otherwise 
than deeply sensible of the evil of sin, of inborn corruption, 
of entire alienation from God, and, in the same degree, con- 
scious of the infinite need of Christ Jesus and his righteous- 
ness ; but of that profound consciousness what a beautiful 
humility ; what a calm and strong and realizing faith ; what 
divine assurance of acceptance ; what growing reconciliation 
to the cross of suffering; what heavenly aspirations for com- 
plete likeness to Jesus, rose in ever-increasing fulness of 
strength and blessedness ! 

"All his mature life was passed in the service of the Uni- 
versity of Georgia. What Professor Waddel was to his 
Alma Mater, and through her to Georgia and to the coun- 
try, is too well known to require any extended account from 
us. Endowed by Providence with an intellect of rare force 
and com^Drehensiveness ; capable of making the largest ac- 
quisitions of knowledge, and equally competent to retain 
and use them with the utmost skill; his incHnations and his 
sensibiHties all in closest sympathy with his profession ; a 
man, indeed, who seemed to have been created for this specific 
vocation, — how fully content was he in this sphere of activity; 
how fervently he loved the work, and how heartily did he 
consecrate himself to its tasks! And what an impress aa 



136 Professor William Henry Waddel. 

to breadtli and enduringness has he left on the University, 
and on scores of young men ^\'ho have been enriched and 
ennobled by the high aims and refined culture caught from 
the glow and quickening of his inspiring soul ! 

"And now that our hearts are smitten to the dust by this 
sore bereavement, "sve recall, Avith deep thankfulness to 
Almighty God, our Father, that one so true, so conscientious 
in every relation of life, so steadfast in principle, so heroic 
in sentiment, so highly gifted, and yet so faithful in using 
ills grand gifts for the glory of his Maker and Redeemer, 
was permitted to live in our midst and leave to us an ex- 
ample of such transcendent w^orth. As men reason, it is 
unutterably sad to see such genius and Christian goodness 
fall suddenly from the zenith of its career to the grave ! But 
God's thoughts of men and their uses are not our thoughts, 
nor are his ways our ways. "Whether he gives or takes away, 
the language of our hearts should be ever, 'Blessed be his 
holy name ! ' " 

To the foregoing I beg to add the following extract of a 
letter written on occasion of a correspondence between my- 
self and his pastor, Rev. C. W. Lane, B. D., in regard to 
Professor Waddel: 

Extract. 
"I never knew a more active church officer and Christian 
worker than was Professor W. H. Waddel — prompt to at- 
tend special meetings, wise in counsel, and ever ready to 
discharge any duties assigned him, either as an elder or a 
deacon. He was also an able instructor in the Sabbath- 
school, having a large class of young men for years; an ever- 
ready and edifying leader of prayer-meetings, and at times 
he conducted services for vacant country churches near our 
city. He most happily blended in his life a rare excellency 
as a professor with a rare diligence as a Christian worker. 
'He being dead, yet speaketh,' was my text at his funeral. 



Memorial Notices. 137 

"The best lesson of his life seems to me to be, that high 
success in an honorable- and nseful vocation need not prevent 
an active and wide usefulness in Christian work. He was 
an exceptionalh' able and earnest professor. He was also 
an exceptionally able and earnest Christian worker. Whether 
-with scholarly enthusiasm discharging his duties as a pro- 
fessor, or wdth affectionate tenderness telling the story of 
the cross in a cottage prayer-meeting, among the humble 
poor or among the cultivated and refined, he was ever a 
splendid example of gifted and cultivated manhood. When 
the Master called him home, truly ' a prince and a great 
man fell in Israel ! ' One of the strong pillars on which I 
leaned as pastor was taken away when this brother beloved 
passed within the veil ! . . . . 

" (Signed) C. W. Lane. 

In testimony of his reputation as a professor, an extract 
from a letter to m^^self from the venerable and beloved ex- 
President of Davidson College, Eev. Dr. Robert H. Morri- 
son, of North Carolina, written in August, 1860, when Pro- 
fessor Waddel was only twenty-six years of age : 

" On the strength of your nomination, w^e elected j'our 
nephew, Professor W. H. Waddel, Professor of Greek Litera- 
ture in our college, and I will regard it as an act of kind- 
ness if you will exert your influence to induce him to accept 
the same. We had no letter or credentials from him, and I 
supposed the time might be too short to receive them. 

" (Signed) R. H. Morrison." 

Professor Waddel was not a candidate, and respectfully 
dechned to accept the chair. He preferred to give his ser- 
vices to his Alma Mater. 



APPENDIX. 



Mural tablets. 

No. 1. 
On a mural tablet over the pulpit of the Presbyterian Church, at 
Willington, in Abbeville County, South Carolina, the following, 
is inscribed : 

In Mi^motg ol 

THE EEVEREND AND LEARNED 

MOSES WADDEL, D. D., 

The Founder of this Chubch, in the year 1813. 

" Who was faithful to Rim zcho appointed him " 

Presented to tlie cliurcli by Mrs. Burt. 



Mural l^ablett 

No. II. 
In rear of the Presbyterian Church pulpit, of the city of Athens, Ga. 

REV. MOSES WADDEL, D. D. 

BoEN IN Ikedell County, North Carolina, July 29, 1770. 

While President of the University of Georgia, he organized this 
Church, December 25, 1820, and for ten years was its minister. 

Died in Athens, Georgia, July 21, 1840. 

Preacher and Teacher. 

In each office, forgetting self and aiming only at the glory of the Re- 
deemer, he evinced the possibility of making both subservient 
to that great end. Eminent for piety, illustrious 
for services, the full measure of years 
allotted to man crowned his life. 
138 



i 



No. III. 

In tlie new cemetery at Athens, Ga. , near the entrance, there stands 
plain granite shaft, 

EEECTED BY THE PHI KAPPA SOCIETY 

OF THE UNIVEE^ilTY, 

%n Memory of 

DR. MOSES WADDEL, 
PROF. JAMES P. WADDEL, 

His Son. 

PROF. WM. HENRY WADDEL, 

His Gkandson. 



On the western face of this shaft : 

MOSES WADDEL, D. D., 

BoBN, July 28, 1770, 

Died, July 21, 1840. 

President of the University of Georgia, from 1819-1829^ 



On the southern face of the shaft: 

PROF. J. P. WADDEL, 

BoEN IN Columbia Co., Ga., January 5, 1801, 
Died in Athens, Ga., May 26, 1867. 



On the northern face of the shaft : 

PROF. W. H. WADDEL, 

BoEN, Abbeville District, S. C, April 28, 1834.. 
Died, Milfoed, Va., September 18, 1878. 



139 



4 

I 



PRIVATE AND EDUCATIONAL 
LIFE AND LABORS 

OF 

JOHNK WADDEL, D. D., LL D. 

WEITTEN BY HIMSELF. 



JOHN N. WABDEl, D. D., LL D. 



CHAPTER I. 

BiETH AND Some Reminiscences of My First Seven Teabs. 

I AM the youngest of six cliildren of the Eev. Moses Wad- 
del, D. D., and Mrs. Eliza Woodson {nee Pleasants) 
Waddel. I was born on the 2d of April, 1812, and entered 
this world on the same day with a sister, and hence I am 
one cf twins. / Our birthplace was Willington, Abbeville 
District, S. C, known widely as the location of a once cele- 
brated academy, where my father superintended the scholas- 
tic training of many of the most distingaiished men of 
South Carolina and Georgia. The place itself has no higher 
claim to celebrity than just the fact that many great char- 
acters in all the professions attended their preparatoiy 
course of study at that spot. There was no extensive and 
populous mart of commerce to be found under that name, 
but only such an inconsiderable hamlet as, naturally and 
by necessity, would gradually grow around a prosperous in- 
stitution of learning, and which would furnish ai'ticles of 
school use for the students from abroad. It was, in other 
words, only a country place, and constituted a centre of at- 
traction for a considerable number of Scotch-Irish and 
French Presbyterians, descendants of the Huguenots, not 
only for the advantages of the academy, but also on account 
of the privileges of the church. These were a race of intel- 
ligent and high-toned citizens, residing in the neighborhood 

113 



144 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

which covered, at that time, a territory of some ten or fif- 
teen miles in circumference, whose farms furnished an 
abundant supply of the products of a soil then compara- 
tively fresh. 

In a former sketch, giving a cursory view of my father's 
domestic life, I described the nature of the discipline under 
which his children were reared, and, in so doing, I en- 
deavored to point out the peculiar traits of my father and 
those of my mother, and to show how, by harmonious co- 
operation, they succeeded in making a wise combination of 
their diverse temperaments, resulting in the most effective 
system of family training. It will not be necessary to re- 
turn to that topic, save only to refer the reader to that 
sketch. I will state, however, that the fact of my father's 
time and attention having been so completely absorbed by 
the claims of an extensive and enlarged public service at 
the period of my childhood, rendered it almost impossible 
for him to bestow so much of his care and observation on 
the training of the younger members of the family as upon 
those who were more advanced in years; consequently I 
was left more to the immediate supervision of my mother, 
though not without the general superintendence of my father. 
I suppose, too, that I may state, that my having attained 
only my eighth year at the period of his removal from Will- 
ington to the University of Georgia accounts for the fact 
that I was never a student of the Willington Academy. 
Indeed, I never made a recitation to him uutil in my junior 
and senior years in the University, when the class had come 
regularly to the studies of moral science and logic. But 
my school-days in the earlier time were passed in the pur- 
suit of the simplest elements of English. I recall the fact 
now that at that time my days passed noiselessly along, and 
though, perhaps, only negatively happy, I was, at any rate, 
free from care; and, in the company of my mother and my 
sisters, my life wore on as merrily as those of other children* 



Childhood's Years. 145 

I loved my home. I loved the deep, shady, magnificent old 
groves, the grass and moss-covered meadow just below the 
hill, on which stood "the house where I was born," the 
sandy lane in front, the fences of the farm, overgrown with 
vines, the huge aiople-trees in the yard, and the great barn, 
a structure only less imposing than the dwelling house. I 
was deeply interested in watching the travelers, with their 
vehicles of varied forms — carriages, wagons, carts, and 
horses — passing along the highway to and fro, the market 
road leading to Augusta, Ga., on their journey to that great 
world, of which I then knew nothing, and about which I 
cared (if possible) still less. All the localities to which I 
had access in those da^'s of simplicity and freedom from 
care were invested with a nameless fascination for me, such 
as no other place on earth has ever possessed since, or can. 
ever possess again. 

The most important event of my life at that period was, 
that then I began to attend my first school as a pupil. It 
was a private school, taught in my father's house. This 
school consisted of his younger children, my two sisters 
and myself, taught by a young candidate (or licentiate) for 
the ministry, by name James Hillhouse, who did not remain 
long. Of his subsequent history I only know that he went 
to Alabama, and, as a pioneer of the gospel ministry, he 
laid, with other zealous preachers, the broad and deep 
foundations of the church in that then newly-settled coun- 
try ; and although he has long since ceased from his labors 
and been called to his rest, the fruit abides in the gathering 
of an abundant harvest. 

I must have attained at that time an age not exceeding 
five years. Not long after that my father was induced 
to change his residence from the old homestead to the 
little hamlet of Willington, distant about a mile south, as 
more promising of health for his family. Here we resumed 
our attendance on school duties in a log cabin, which had 



146 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

been erected as a summer cottage by some one wlio bad 
left it. It was now fitted up as a scbool-room and made 
quite comfortable, and, instead of being a j^rivate family 
school, it became a public neighborhood school, and was 
pretty fairly patronized. It is a great pleasure to me to re- 
call the teacher who then took charge of this school. Rev. 
David Humphreys, "so long the pastor of Good Hope and 
Roberts," as recorded by Dr. Howe in the History of the 
Presbyterian Church h% South Carolina, and who spent his 
useful, long life wdthiti the limits of the Presbytery of South 
Carolina, and died, full of years and universally beloved, in 
1869, w^as the teacher of this, which was my second school. 
Here, and under the instruction of this excellent man, I 
learned to read, and he it was who gave me my first lessons 
in penmanship. The extent of my education in this place 
only covered the simplest rudiments of English, embracing 
spelling, reading, and writing; but I well remember that 
the Bible was a prominent text-book in that school. This 
brings to mind an incident that made an impression upon 
me at that time, and still holds its place in memory very 
deepl}^ On a certain day, after the daily exercises were 
finished, and the pupils had all left the school-house and 
had gone home, we were startled by the announcement that 
the building was on fire ! This house was in view of my 
f at^her's dwellmg, and I can readily bring to mind the terror 
that I felt at the sight of the flame that shot up in angry 
sheets of fire toward the sky, and how the thought that gave 
me most concern was that my JBible would be burned up ! 
But sad as this disaster seemed, it had not the effect of put- 
ting the school to an end, for another humble building- 
was soon found hard by, which was quickly pressed into 
service and made to answer the purpose as long as was 
necessary imtil better arrangements could be made. Our 
teacher, who had been engaged in the studies preparatory 
to the ministry, under my father's instruction, soon after 



Eaely School Days. 147 

this was licensed and left for his field of labor. I may not 
dismiss the mention of this beloved man without adding 
that his ministerial labors were continued very nearly in the 
same field, with small exception, for the sj^ace of about fifty 
years, during which time he was abundant in zealous and 
successful work for the cause of Christ. His name is still 
"as ointment j^oured forth," and, as long as my father lived 
in Abbeville, Mr. Humphreys was alw^ays a favorite guest, 
and welcome to all our household, and he was regarded by 
us all as among the best and wisest of men in the large cir- 
cle of our acquaintance. I may be pardoned for a remark 
which might savor of overweening self-importance under 
other circumstances, and that is, that this man of God little 
thought when he was teaching me the elements (a little boy of 
six or seven years) that he should live to know of my serving 
in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that we should be permitted 
in the good providence of God to meet, as we did in Balti- 
more, as members of the Southern General Assembly. 

In those childhood times, however, before my mind had 
experienced the expansion resulting from contact with the 
great world, the surrounding picture which met my obser- 
vation was marked, in my crude conceptions, with many fea- 
tures that loomed up in imaginary grandeur and mystery. 
The ponds, the delight of geese and ducks, seemed to me 
extensive sheets of w^ater of unknown depth ; nor did they 
shrink into their diminished limits until I had seen and 
wondered at their mighty rivals in my after years — the 
broad waters of the Savannah and the dashing surges of 
the Oconee mill-pond at Athens, Ga. ! I shall not easily 
forget the deep and disagreeable impression left on my 
spirits by my fii-st view of oil-painted j^ortraits on canvass. 
The problem that puzzled me was to decide whether they 
were hving or dead. They hung upon a parlor wall of a 
house in the neighborhood, where I was once a child- visitor. 
Those strange, searching eyes, peering out from the frames, 



148 John N. Waddel, D. D, LL. D. 

seemed to follow me as I moved all through the room, go 
where I would, and to single me out as the special object of 
their observation with their cold, stony, glaring look. Nor 
did I lose the apprehension then taking hold of m}^ feelings 
for a great while afterwards in my childhood. I mention 
one more incident of those days, when, as is usual, a class 
of impressions make marks upon the child-heart and mind, 
which, though they disappear as years ripen, are somehow 
never forgotten. Occasion arising once when my mother 
needed to send to a neighbor a message on some point of 
social nature. She sent one of my older brothers as her 
messenger. The distance was, jDcrhaps, something more 
than a mile to be traversed, and he pressed me into service 
as his companion. As the time of the day was the after- 
noon, and somewhere toward sunset, and we were not dis- 
posed to be hurried, we found that night was approaching 
before we began to return. It was then we remembered a 
ghost story, the scene of which was near a small running* 
stream which crossed our road. The story was this: A 
physician of the neighborhood was once returning from a 
visit to a patient along the very road we then trod, and as 
he came in sight of the little branch, as the story goes, he 
saw a man approaching from the opj)osite side of the stream 
on horseback. He paid no special attention to the matter 
then, as he expected to meet the rider at the water, but, 
when he came near it, the horse and rider could be seen no- 
where at all, but the vision vanished in a floating cloud of 
blue smoke ! Of coarse, it was nothing but a story which 
was made up by some one merely to attract the lovers of 
the marvelous, but it was adopted as a real occurrence by 
the credulous, and related by the negroes as a true story of 
a ghost seen by the doctor. On minds of children, I remem- 
ber, it made a deep impression; and as my brother and I 
approached the branch, the scene of this fearful apparition, 
we felt the awfulness of the position, especially as it was 
growing dark. We quickened our gait, and did not feel 



Early Reminiscences. I49 

perfectly safe until we reached home, breathless with fear 
and fatigued beyond measure. There was among the ne- 
groes immense tendency to the behef in ghosts, and no 
doubt the chHdren received their impressions from the 
superstitious tales which they were so fond of teUing. The 
misfortune is that, while many children subsequently are 
brought under influences sufficiently powerful to counteract 
the evil of such incidental associations, there are many who 
never perfectly escape the contagion of early and evil train- 
ing of this kind. 

Memory serves me with a reminiscence of a somewhat 
different nature, as it displays a tendency on my part which, 
although not developed into reaHty for many long years af- 
terwards, still came to be recalled to my recollection when 
I had reached the age of manhood. It was a disposition 
manifested to figure among my home companions as a pub- 
lic speaker, and more especially as a preacher. I suppose 
it is in part accounted for by the fact that I had been accus- 
tomed all my childhood to accompany my mother to chm'ch 
Sabbath after Sabbath. There the most impressive part of 
the occasion was the appearance and manner of my father 
and other ministers as they officiated in public service in 
the pulpit. The prmciple of imitation would naturally give 
rise to the practice in a child, but as that idea vanished in 
process of time, and the true character of preaching entered 
into and took possession of my more enlightened under- 
standing, I lost my fondness for all personal exercises of 
that kind until I entered my junior year in college, and even 
then my career as a pubhc speaker closed on the day of my 
graduation, and my entrance upon a course of hfe requiring 
no such methods of communicating with others. I do not 
remember that I ever had occasion to present myself after- 
wards in pubhc as a speaker until my thirtieth year, and 
that was as a licentiate in Mississippi; but I am anticipat- 
ing, and with these reminiscences of my early days I must 
close this chapter and enter upon another. 



CHAPTEE II. 

My Pkepakatoky School-days in Athens, Ga. 

rr the year 1818 my father, as has been stated in his bio- 
graphy abeady, was invited to the presidency of the 
University of Georgia, and, after much careful deliberation 
and prayer for divine guidance, he decided to accept the 
call. Of all this, being a mere child of six years of age, I 
was naturally in blissful ignorance, and the even tenor of 
my humble way remained uninterrupted by the momentous 
discussions and 23re23arations in progress. Nor did I realize 
the fact until in the following year, in the month of May, we 
were all summoned to leave the spot around which clustered 
so many endearing memories of days and years of what to us 
seemed endless pleasure and careless delight. Had I realized 
then fully all that I should be called to encounter in the 
years that lay spread out before me all unknown, a deep 
feeling of sadness would no doubt have overshadowed my 
heart, when, at a turn of the road on our journey, the hori- 
zon beyond the old fields around my birthplace, rendered 
blue and smooth by the enchantment lent by distance to 
the view, was shut off, and nothing lay before us but an un- 
known and weary travel to the great, strange world. But 
the wise constitution of our nature, whereby we are re- 
stricted in our knowledge to the present, and cannot pene- 
trate a day into the future, enabled us very soon to dismiss 
all gloom, and the novelty of things around had a tendency 
to restore the normal equanimity and cheerfulness of child- 
hood. A day or two of travel (of course, by private convey- 
ance) in those primitive times enabled us to accomplish the 
sixty miles that lay between us and Athens ; and when we 

150 



Removal to Athens. 151 

came to the hills which rise abruptly from the Oconee 
river, beyond which lay our new home, the first objects of 
interest to our wondering gaze were the summits of the 
chimneys that rose from the roof of the old three-story 
brick dormitory of the college in the distance. I have even 
now a vivid impression of the grand and solemn appearance 
of everything, and the increasing depth of that impression 
as we came in front of the old building, with its long rows 
of windows, one above the other, facing a wide and beauti- 
ful campus, gently sloping to the street. But I did not 
know then that this huge pile of brick and mortar, now full 
of empty, silent, and deserted rooms, which had then been 
abandoned for nearly three years, would very shortly be re- 
sounding with the noise and bustle of preparation for the 
reception of hundreds of the young men and boys of the 
land, coming to be trained under the new order of things 
for their Hfe-work of honor and usefulness. Utterly uncon- 
scious, too, was I, " a small boy " of seven years, as I gazed 
on the scene presented to view, that in some future day I 
should be admitted as an occupant of this huge building, 
and a recipient of the advantages and benefits of the insti- 
tution. All these facts and reflections lay latent and un- 
formed in my unawakened consciousness, and I felt no dis- 
turbance of my peace of mind by the fact that I was doomed 
to a long and tedious training i^reparatory to this higher 
theatre of work and effort. 

My scholastic career as a pupil began soon after my 
father's arrival in Athens by my entrance into an English 
school, taught in a small, unpainted room some twenty or 
twenty-five feet square, as I remember, on the northern 
limit of the University campus, just where the first house of 
worship of the Presbyterian church was afterwards erected. 
The teacher of this school was James Fulton, an excellent 
man, of plain and unpretentious character, but desen^ing of 
full credit for the possession of all the qualifications of a 



152 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

thorough English scholar and teacher in the primary de- 
partment. I spent at least one session there, and my recol- 
lection of the school is, that it was patronized by some of 
the first citizens of the town and surrounding country. The 
only names of my fellow pupils that I can now recall are 
two sons of Hon. A. S. Clayton, George K. and Augustine 
S. ; two sons of a wealthy merchant of Athens, Stevens and 
Dudley Thomas, and two sons of Colonel Carnes, Johnson 
and Stanley. There were also the Scotts, Kinneys, and 
Mitchells, from the surrounding country. Some of these 
boys may be still living, but I know that many of them are 
dead. The system of government adopted in this school 
was based upon the time-honored rules laid down in the 
Proverbs of Solomon, which enjoin upon all in authority, 
whether as parents, or as those acting in loco par enttim, the 
use of the rod, giving as the ground of this injunction the 
fact that "foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child," 
and assuring the administrator that ''the rod of correction 
shall drive it far from him." I am far from intending to 
leave the impression, however, that Mr. Fulton was a man of 
cruel or passionate temper, or devoid of the power of self- 
control. He felt it his duty to the child, as well as to the 
parent, to use all legitimate measures for the correction of 
offenders, in order to insure proper training and secure the 
good order of the school. But it was a true experience of 
a faithful school-teacher in those days, and is largely true 
in the present age, that his office was difficult and thankless 
in its exercise. How it originated, perhaps, is a problem 
not solved, but it is certain that the relation between 
teacher and pupil was too generally regarded by the latter 
as one of direct antagonism. We may account for this 
in part by the fact, that on the part of the teacher of the 
olden time there was an exaction of official distance to be 
observed by the puj^il from him in order to the preservation 
of that respect due his office. The natural result of such a 



Eaely School Days. 153 

requirement was to engender in the mind of the pupil the 
idea that the teacher was to be feared, not loved. A cus- 
tom not 3'et altogether out of use existed then, \dz., to desig- 
nate the teacher by the adjective " Old," and that, too, with- 
out regard to age, all that was necessary being that he 
occupied the place of teacher. Frequently there was added 
a noun, to be qualified by this word " Old," founded upon 
some pecuharity observable in the teacher. Accordingly, 
that which gave rise to Mr. Fulton's nick-name was a stoop- 
ing gait in his walk and the forward movement of his head 
at every step, and so, not content with calling him " Old 
Fulton," they adopted the title "Old Drake" by which he 
was afterwards generally known among successive genera- 
tions of pupils. Carrying out the idea, the boys who at- 
tended the Grammar School, a preparatory school for the 
University, who held themselves as occupying a more ele- 
vated rank than the Fultonites, were fond of carrying this 
custom to its legitimate sequence, and as the master was a 
drake, it followed that the pupils were " young ducks." It 
is recorded that these boys of the " upper form " were in 
the habit (by way of amusement) of caUing the young ducks 
up to be fed, repeating the words, "Diddle, diddle, diddle," 
no doubt to the wrathful indignation of this class. 

The only instance of outbreaking disorder during my 
connection with this school was a " barring out " that was 
carried into effect by the larger boys. What the provoca- 
tion was that suggested this manifestation of rebellion I am 
not able to recall at this remote period ; it was accompHshed, 
however, by the usual methods adopted on such occasions. 
"When the teacher arrived on the morning of that day to 
open and conduct the exercises as usual, he found himself 
effectually excluded from his domain by barred door and 
windows. He succeeded in recovering his lost seat of au- 
thority, I suppose, by getting outside assistance, aud settled 
the matter, doubtless, on the most satisfactory terms to him- 



154 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

self, however it resulted to the rebels. As to ni^^self, I re- 
member that I had no concern in it for two good reasons: 
I was too young, and I stood in too wholesome dread of the 
home settlement consequent upon a possible participation 
in such an enterprise. I may as well dismiss this part of 
my school-day history by recording that, neither during that 
period or term of my discipleship, nor in any school or col- 
lege with which I was subsequently connected, was I ever 
concerned or personally involved in the petty tricks or more 
serious misdemeanors so commonly practiced by school-boys 
or by college students. I presume that long ere this time 
the good man, Mr. James Fulton, who wdelded the authority 
of that little domain in 1820, has rested from his toils and 
been gathered to his fathers. Peace to his ashes ! Many 
with whom I have been associated during my long life may 
have outshined him in the more artificial distinctions of 
society, but I am sure that few have surpassed him in the 
homely, but valuable, virtue of conscientious fidelity in the 
discharge of daily duty. 

When I left that school my father placed in my hands the 
Latin Grammar, as the first step in my preparation for col- 
lege. I was then only eight years of age. It may not be 
charged that I am presumptuous in asserting my belief that 
it was a premature step in my educational training. The 
study of language, especially of the ancient Greek and Ro- 
man tongues, in my opinion, formed after long experience, 
requires, for its successful mastery, a maturity of mind and 
a critical grasp of thought which is not found in a child of 
eight years. The more appropriate line of study, as it 
strikes me, is the course that calls for the culture of the 
perceptive powers, since these are the faculties first awak- 
ened and brought into action. 

Says ex-President Porter in his great work, The Human 
Intellect: "The studies that should be first pursued are 
those which require observation and acquisition, and which 



Maturity of Mind Necessaey in Education. 155 

involve imagination and memory, in contrast with those 
which demand severe efforts and trained habits of thought. 
Inasmuch, also, as material objects are apprehended and 
mastered in early life with far greater ease and success than 
the acts and states of the spirit, objective and material 
studies should have almost exclusive precedence," 

The true conception of the development of the intellect 
he expresses succinctly and justly, I think, in these w^ords: 

" To teach pure observation, or the mastery of objects and 
■words, without classification or interpretation, is to be igno- 
rant even to simple stupidity; but, on the other hand, to 
stimulate the thought processes to unnatural and prema- 
tm-ely painful efforts, is to do violence to the laws which 
nature has written in the constitution of the intellect. 
Even thought and reflection teach us that before the pro- 
cesses of thought can be applied, materials must be gathered 
in large abundance; and, to provide for these, nature has 
made acquisition and memory easy and spontaneous for 
childhood, reasoning and science difficult and unnatural." 

If we call to mind that there is a science of language, as 
well as of any other department of knowledge, and that to 
master that science requires a power of reasoning not gene- 
rally developed at so early a i^eriod as eight years of age, 
my position will be appreciated. I think that some book of 
object lessons is preferable to the Latin Grammar to be 
placed in the hands of so young a child. Even a book of 
primary Geometry, couched in simple language, accompa- 
nied with figures, can be explained to one of that age with 
entire success. Then the jDowers thus called into active ex- 
ercise to observe and to retain in memory will stimulate the 
learner to discriminate and classify what has been acquired. 
Due attention to such principles for a time will result in 
strengthening the memoiy and in rendering the powers of 
classification vigorous and prompt, so as to be ready to take 
in all the more abstruse principles involved in the science of 



156 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

language. Those studies less abstruse and more readily 
and easily mastered should occupy the attention of the 
student in earlier years, until the more mature age of twelve 
or thereabouts. I can only say, that in the main the facts 
in my case tend to confirm this theory ; for while it is true 
that I had not the opportunity of testing the advantage of 
substituting the less abstruse course of study referred to 
above, the difficulty I experienced in the beginning of my 
Latin study must be accounted for upon the fact that it was 
undertaken at an age when the mind was immature. I give 
this as my opinion from my success in mastering the lan- 
guages at a later period, after I had been kept to the study 
of other subjects, along with the study of ancient lan- 
guages, until by the exercise gradually I acquired this power 
and a taste for Latin. So that, contrary to the expectation 
that might have been indulged from my unpromising begin- 
ning, I soon began to find enjoyment in the study of the 
ancient languages, and the longer I was kept at these 
studies, the greater the attraction they seemed to possess. 
Hence it came to pass that I attained a high grade of class 
standing in this department of scholastic instruction. It 
became my favorite study, and was my peculiar forte, so 
much so that I filled the Professorship of Classical Litera- 
ture in tw^o of the Faculties of which I afterwards became a 
member, and taught the Greek incidentally in a third. 

To resume the narrative, I became a regular student of 
the Grammar School not long after the time in question, 
and in that school I began my preparation for the Freshman 
Class in Franklin College, of the University of Georgia. 
The Hst of studies required for admission into this class is 
not remembered, but the age of admission was then, what 
it is now, fixed at fourteen years. When it is known to all 
that the vast advancement of the knowledge of science 
within the half century past is unprecedented in the history 
of the world, it wiU not escape the observation of those who 



\ 



Enters the Grammar School. 157 

are familiar with the world's progress that iu 1822-'23 the 
cnrriciilum of scientific study was very limited iu extent 
and in the number of subjects pursued. The principal 
stress was laid on Latin and Greek in the published requi- 
sites for admission. Inasmuch, then, as I did not attain 
the age of fourteen, and was not allowed to enter College 
until 1826, it will be seen that I had an excess of time in 
which to prepare. I entered upon my work, however, with 
my best powers, and the time wore on and I made very fair 
progress. 

The Grammar School, in which I was now entered as a 
pupil, consisted, as I now recollect, of about one hundred 
boys, of all ages from ten to eighteen or twenty, and of all 
grades of advancement, from beginners to those who Avere 
engaged in the closing studies of the course. It was under 
the joint instruction of two gentlemen, Moses AV. Dobbins 
and Ebenezer Newton. Mr. Dobbins was a nephew of my 
father, and received his entire education at Wilhngton 
Academy. His colleague, Mr. Newton, was a graduate of 
the University, of the Class of 1811. Mr. Dobbins being a 
cousin of mine, I was placed under his immediate care and 
supervision. These teachers occupied separate rooms of a 
two-story building, Mr. Dobbins the room on the lower 
floor and Mr. Newton a smaller room above stairs. The 
lower room was made purposely larger, in order to be used 
at the opening and closing hours of the school every day 
for prayers, the entire body of the students of both apart- 
ments being required to be present. On such occasions the 
teachers officiated alternately, the roll was called by moni- 
tors appointed from the older students. 

These gentlemen have both long since ceased from their 
earthly labors and passed to their heavenly rest. They 
were men of excellent qualities of head and heai*t; well- 
grounded in all the required subjects of scholastic instruc- 
tion, with firm, steady, impartial, and kindly methods of 



158 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

discipline; devotedly pious members of the Presbyterian 
church, and possessing* the entire confidence and esteem of 
the community where they resided. At that time, and for 
some years following, the school formed a part of the sys- 
tem of the Universit}^, and an annual salary of eight hun- 
dred dollars was paid to each of these teachers from the 
University treasury. In j)rocess of time the Grammar School 
was separated from the University as a constituent part of 
its course, and was thrown open to individual enterprise, 
the teacher receiving his support from the tuition fees. The 
old school-house was removed to give place for some build- 
ing to be used for purposes of the University proper, per- 
haps the library. 

It may be in order that I should here record more min- 
utely the course of preparatory study adopted in that school. 
It will serve as a part of the history of education, and, hj a 
comparison of it with that which now is recjuired for admis- 
sion into college, we maj^ observe the advance made in that 
stage of education. 

The course covered Latin, Greek, arithmetic, penman- 
ship, elocution, and composition. The first book was the 
Latin Grammar, which was studied memoriter, the defini- 
tions of the parts of speech, the declensions and paradigms 
of the nouns and adjectives, and pronouns, the conjugations 
of the verb, with number, person, mood, and tense, and all 
the variations of regular, irregular, and defective verbs, and 
the indechnable parts of speech, adverbs, prepositions, con- 
junctions, and interjections, all were carefully committed to 
memory and made familiar to the mind of the student. 
This brought him to the syntax, and the arrival at this x^oint 
in the journey was always looked to as an important attain- 
ment, opening a new and interesting scene of study. Mem- 
ory was still called into active exercise. The rules must be 
committed and all the examples illustrating each rule. This 
part having been gone over, ordinarily the first parts were 



Early Methods of Teaching, 159 

reviewed, aud when, in the course of this review, the syntax 
-was again reached, the student w^as required, not only to 
memorize as before, but the new task was prescribed of 
"parsing'' (as it was called) every word in each example, 
showing the part of speech to which it belonged, together 
with the relation it bore to the other words in the example, 
and, lastly, to repeat and apply the rule under which the 
student was exercising himself. This course was continued 
until ever}' rule and all its examples were thoroughly mas- 
tered to the end of the grammar. It is interesting, too, to 
observe the changes which have taken place in the text- 
books since that time. The grammar used then, and for 
some years, was an old book called Huddlman's Rudiments 
of the Latin Tongue" now perhaps out of print, of which I 
have seen only one copy in half a century. Many expedients 
w^ere adopted in it for the purpose of aiding the memory of 
the student in committing the variations of the verb, or 
other j^arts of speech, and the one most advantageous was 
to present the principle in rhyme. 

As there was then a comparatively small amount of scien- 
tilic study required for admission into college, the greater 
part of the time and attention of the candidate was occupied 
in the study of the ancient languages. There w^ere some 
peculiarities in vogue then in the methods of teaching Latin 
and Greek, which seem, in a great measm-e, to have been 
abandoned in the modern system of preparation. While I 
do not propose to decide upon the relative value of either 
plan, the old or the new, at the same time I do not feel at 
liberty to omit a minute record of the mode of the schools 
used in that early period of time. I propose giving also the 
reasons for its adoption by those who made use of it. 

One of these peculiar methods was to place in the hands 
of the candidate or student beginning the course a series of 
primary text-books, which varied in the degree of difficulty 
successively, from the exceedingly easy to those of the series 



160 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

requiring the closer axDplication of the mind to master, un- 
til gradually he was thrown upon his own acquired re- 
sources, having no aid save that derived from his grammar 
and dictionary. The arrangement was on this wise : The 
first text-book placed in the hands of the student after a 
thorough mastery of the grammar was a book called The 
Colloquies of Corderius, a copy of which I have not seen, I 
am sure, within fifty years, and I suppose it is out of print; 
it is certainly out of use. The book was arranged in paral- 
lel columns, the one of these columns being very simple sen- 
tences in English, and the other consisting of Latin sen- 
tences to correspond. The student was expected, while pre- 
paring his task, to use the translation entirely until he had 
become perfectly familiar with the reading; but when he 
came before the teacher to recite, he was expected to cover 
the English with a paper, so as to translate the Latin with- 
out further aid. After accomplishing fifty of the Colloquies 
in this way, exercised all along in parsing every word of the 
Latin, as well as translating, he was required to take up the 
Colloquies of Erasmus. This was arranged in the same 
way, in parallel columns of Latin and English, but the read- 
ing was somewhat more difficult to the student from the 
fact that the order of the Latin text placed the words not 
in exact correspondence with the English, and so the 
student found that there was a necessity for harder study 
to apply the words in the Latin to the English words in 
their proper places. This was done by what was called by 
the boys "skipping about," and demanded some knowledge 
by their previous training to find the proper word and use it 
as its various inflections required in order to meet the exact 
meaning. This was followed by a third text-book, Corne- 
lius JVepos, in his Lives oj Distinguished Men, which, 
although arranged in the same method of parallel EngHsh 
and Latin columns, required still greater capacity of selec- 
tion and discrimination so as to appropriate the scattered 



Eakly Classical Text-Books. 161 

words in the Latin to the correspondent English words, and 
thus to construct the sentence. The closest attention was 
paid also to the analysis of the sentence in every respect, 
and the student was exercised in pointing out the interde- 
pendence of the several parts and the relation sustained by 
the one to the other, and the application of the proper syn- 
tactical rule to the whole. These books having been mas- 
tered as far as was considered necessary, The Commen- 
taries of CcBscir was next put into the student's hands, and 
now he had no further aid from an English translation, 
unless he used one surreptitiously. Certainly there was no 
provision for such assistance in the ordinary course of study, 
and this sort of help was held to be contraband, "banned 
and barred, forbidden fare." Of this text-book six books 
were required to be read. Along with it Latin exercises 
were written, Mair's Introduction being the text-book, the 
work prescribed being to correct false Latin sentences. 
Cmsar was succeeded by Virc/i/, and of this book The Ten 
Eclogues^ the first, second, and fourth books of the Georgics, 
and six books of the ^Eneid. The Latin preparatory 
course was closed by reading Cicero's Select Orations, 
but the number of these orations required I cannot now 
recall. But in consequence of my being so far under the 
required age of entrance into college (fourteen years), I was 
kept in the Grammar School much longer than was neces- 
sary, and consequently I read more Latin and Greek than 
was ordinarily read. We usually began the study of Greek 
on entering the study of Virgil, as it was supposed that we 
had been sufficiently drilled in the previous Latin course to 
fit us for the study of Greek. The grammar in use then 
was a very small, thin book, WettenhalVs Greek Grammar, 
which, being deservedly regarded as exceedingly defective 
in every requisite for the study of Greek, was very soon 
superseded by superior grammars. Yalj^y's Greek Gram- 
mar was introduced (Anthon's edition), and this lasted in 



I 



162 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

its use in the schools of the country a long tune. This has 
had its rivals in later days, among which we may mention 
Goodrich and Bullion, Kilhner, and Goodwyn, and Hadley. 
Others also continue to take their places in the modern 
course of study. Not to mention the great German authors, 
we may dismiss the subject by the remark, that it is becom- 
ing a custom for many professors of Greek to edit a Greek 
grammar to meet some real or imaginary want unsupphed 
by existing grammars. 

The first Greek text-book that was placed in my hands 
was the Greek Testament; and while the Gospel by John 
was ordinarily regarded sufficient, my impression now is 
that, by reason of my being too young to enter college, I 
was kept reading several other parts of the Testament. 
There were two books now out of use which were then 
adopted as text-books in Greek, viz., Grceca Minora and 
Grasca Major a. The first of these consisted of The Fables, 
The Mythological Narratives, and The Dialogues of the 
Dead, by Lucian, and the Odes of Anacreon. The Grcaca 
Majora was, in like manner, a book of extracts from the 
ancient Greek authors; also much more difficult to the 
learner. These are no longer known in the list of prepara- 
tory studies for college, but, instead, we have Greek readers 
of a variety of authors, among them Goodwyn's and Whiton's 
First Book in Greek, etc. The course of preparation in the 
ancient languages covered more ground then than it does 
now from the fact already referred to, viz., the wonderful 
advance of the sciences and other special departments of 
human learning within the last half centur}^ which has ren- 
dered it necessary that time once devoted to Latin and 
Greek should be shortened and surrendered to the sciences, 
and partly to the study of the modern languages. 

That boys were made more thorough in their scholarship 
in the days of my boyhood than they have been since, may 
or may not be true universally, or that the system then 



Early Text- Books. 163 

adopted ay as superior to that used in modern times I am not 
prepared to assert as true in all respects. I am decidedly of 
the opinion that, where a sufficient time is allowed for boys 
to learn what they are required to master, a^^propriate sub- 
jects being given to the various ages of the boys, the same 
result might be reached by either course. But it has come 
to be regarded by our people as too great a sacrifice of time 
and money to allow seven or eight years to the study of the 
Latin and Greek languages and sciences. As it is a part of 
a liberal education to study these branches, the accepted 
theory is that our sons must, of coui'se, study them ; but the 
constant and impatient cry is, " Hurry them through." Now, 
as teachers are mostly dependent upon the patronage they ob- 
tain, they fall in with this clamor too often in order to please 
parents; and if any teacher is too conscientious to pander 
to this unwise sentiment, he is frequently condemned as 
old fogyisJi , and is left behind in the race of competition. 
There remain still a few of this class of teachers to recall to 
our recollection what was once in existence, but the race is 
rapidly dying out. Another cause of superficial scholarship 
is to be traced to the multitude of helps in the way of text- 
books, making the student's task so easy as to leave him no 
mental labor to perform. Everything is simplified, espe- 
cially in the languages and mathematics. There are two 
extremes to be avoided, of which the one is too little assist- 
ance, and the other the opposite extreme. I have seen an 
edition of Horace and one of the Iliad, in which the editor 
not only translated and scanned ever}^ difficult passage, but 
many that were not difficult, thereby winning the reputa- 
tion accorded to commentators generally, that they are 
"very good in easy places"; besides analyzing or parsing 
almost every word for the student. 

Some of text-books of the old time, in my judgment, were 
objectionable, not on account of being too easy, but because 
they did not require enough of independent effort on the 



164 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

part of the student. I have described the method of teach, 
ing by parallel columns of Enghsh and Latin, in which the 
task of the student was simply that of memory, and I be- 
lieve that, if no Enghsh translation had been furnished, he 
could have mastered the whole with no aid but that which 
he could have procured from a dictionary or vocabulary and 
his grammar. I prefer the modern text-book system, which 
ignores translations from the outset; and yet, while a judi- 
cious system of notes in the back part of the book is not ob- 
jectionable, that which is found in many of the books is so 
voluminous and explanatory as to require only that the 
learner should turn over the leaves and consult the notes, 
ignoring the dictionary altogether. Provided, therefore, 
that the languages as a study be not demanded of a stu- 
dent at an age when his mental powers are inadequate to 
the mastery of such abstruse subjects, and the series of 
text-books be gradually ascending in their grade from the 
easy to the more difficult, I should always decide to recom- 
mend the modern system. I can only add, that the Greek 
lexicon which was j)laced in my hands was thoroughly 
Greek, giving even the definitions in Latin ; and my copy of 
Homer's Iliad (Clark's) gave me notes at the bottom of the 
page, every word of which was in Latin. 

There is one more point I should bring into view just 
here : it is the vast importance to a thorough comprehension 
of language which ought to be attached to the study of ety- 
mology. This formed a very prominent exercise in the 
class drilling of the olden time. The plan of recitation was : 
1, Translation, with proper pronunciation of the words ; 2, 
Analysis of the sentence, or, as is the word more commonly 
used, parsing; and then the student was to give the root, 
or stem, or derivation of every simple word, and the com- 
position of every compound. Here, again, there was a dif- 
ference in the giving of these roots and compositions. The 
root of the Greek word was given in Latin, not in English. 



An Incident of College Examinations. 165 

Those who have been drilled in etymology in such schools 
never lose the influence in after life of this part of their 
school exercises, as they find themselves instinctively insti- 
tuting an inquiry into the origin of words, particularly if it 
be a word newly introduced into our language. This is in- 
deed one of the benefits of the ancient classics ; we learn 
English by them. I was prepared for college long before I 
had attained the age of admission, and hence I had reason 
to observe on more than one occasion boys who were my 
classmates in the Grammar School examined and admitted 
into college, while I was left out, and not even examined, 
for no other reason than because they were old enough and 
I w^as not. Had my exclusion been attributable to any de- 
ficiency of my scholarship, it would have been a source of 
mortification to me ; but as it turned out, I was content to 
wait patiently and "bide my time," which came all right at 
last. 

I recall, in this connection, an incident bordering on the 
ludicrous, which occurred on occasion of one of those annual 
examinations of candidates for admission into college from 
the Grammar School. It was when one of the classes 
to which I belonged was to be examined, from which I was 
exempt by being under age. Two of the boys among these 
candidates were intimate associates of mine, and were to be 
examined on the appointed morning in the College Chapel, 
in presence of the Faculty. They were perfectly confident 
of success, and greatly uplifted in the anticipation of being 
admitted to the coveted dignity of college boys. They pro- 
posed, then, to the class, on the evening previous, that they 
should repau' to the usual bathing place, on the Oconee 
river, near by, and "wash off Grammar School!" They 
went, and, I have no doubt, enjoyed the bath, doing then* 
part toward the accomplishment of the desired object ; but, 
when the test of the next morning was applied by the ex- 
aminers, both were rejected, much to their disapi^ointment, 
chagrin, and mortification. 



166 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

To resume my story, I was kept in ttie Grammar School a 
part of the remaining term of my non-age, pursuing the 
same studies that formed the freshman course in college. 
As there always was a school examination conducted at the 
close of each session, I, among the other boys, was exam- 
ined on the studies I had been pursuing during the session. 
On one of these examination occasions, as the school was a 
constituent part of the University, a member of the Faculty 
came to attend, and he was expected to make a report of 
the result. I do not think that I attended that school much 
longer after that. I was put to some light work on my 
father's farm, near Athens, and, according to my recollec- 
tion now, I was kept at that occupation until about May 1, 
1826, just about a month after I had completed my four- 
teenth year. I remember very well that, on a certain after- 
noon, in an interview which I had with Mr. E. S. Hopping, 
one of the tutors, he informed me, greatly to my surprise, 
that I had been admitted by the Faculty into the Freshman 
class, and he notified me to attend the exercises the next 
morning at sunrise ! He further accounted for my being 
admitted without examination upon the ground that my ex- 
amination at the Grammar School some time before had 
been attended by a professor, who reported so favorably of 
it that I was admitted on the credit of that examination 
without being required to submit to any further test. Ac- 
cordingl}^ the next morning I repaired to the recitation- 
room of the tutor, Mr. Lathi"op, who had charge of the in- 
struction of the Freshman Class, and was enrolled as a 
student about the first of May, being the beginning of the 
third or last term of the Freshman year, about three months 
before the close of the session, and the day^f the annual 
•commencement. 



¥ 



CHAPTEE III. 

College Life in the Univeesity of Georgia. 

HEN I entered college the Freshman Class consisted of 
quite a large number of students, of which I was the 
youngest. Before our graduation, how^ever, for various rea- 
sons, the number had become a good deal diminished. This 
is very often the case. In 1829, w^hen this class closed 
their college course and received the diploma of Bachelor of 
Arts, there were twenty-one graduates. I propose, at this 
point, to give the names and as much as I may be able to 
recall of the history of those members of the class who after- 
wards attained distinction in their various spheres or pro- 
fessions. It will appear from the sketches here presented, 
and might be shown by similar sketches of all classes, that 
the attainment of college honors does not guarantee infalli- 
bly the highest success in life. There were three grades 
of honor always awarded to the graduating class, and the 
merit of the members was estimated according to the 
averaged aggregate of all the marks which each had re- 
ceived from the several professors in their various depart- 
ments, laying special stress upon scholarship. The grade 
did not then, as it does now, make one hundred the maxi- 
mum of excellence attainable. There were only three num- 
bers used to indicate relative standing of students, of which 
No. 1 was the highest mark ; and, in case of superior excel- 
lence, to this w^as appended an asterisk. The medium 
grade was marked No. 2, and deficiency was sho"^Ti by No. 
3. The highest distinction in my class was awarded to Na- 
thaniel Macon Crawford. He was first-honor man, and to 
him was assigned the delivery of the valedictory. He was 

167 



168 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

mollis — tliat is, there was no one in the class who shared the 
Jionor with him. The second honor was awarded to Thomas 
F. Scott and WilHam J. Vason jointly, and Scott delivered 
the Latin salutatory. The third honor was jointly bestowed 
upon George F. Pierce and William W. Smythe. There 
were also two sets of students of this class who were entitled 
to speakers' places on commencement day. One set con- 
sisted of five, among whom the Faculty decided there was 
full equality. There were five others also equal, but for 
some reason only two of these were permitted to speak, 
most probably on account of the length of time which would 
be consumed in the delivery of so many as fifteen speeches. 
The two of the second set received their positions by lot ; so 
that we had twelve orations delivered on that day by the 
class of '29. The names of the seven speakers besides the 
honor men were as follows: James M. Adams, Shaler G. 
Hillyer, Kichard D. Moore, Isaac N. Moreland, John B. 
l^atts, George F. Heard, and John N. Waddel. The three 
remaining students of the second set who, although equal 
in scholarship to their colleagues, failed in the decision by 
lot, were John M. Cuyler and Edward J. Erwin and (ac- 
cording to my recollection) Gray A. Chandler. I can state 
with accuracy the subsequent history of the majority of my 
class, and of the rest it must be only an approximation to 
the full record. 

Nathaniel Macon Crawford, a son of the distinguished 
statesman, William H. Crawford, of Georgia, was a model 
college student. If he ever failed in making a perfect reci- 
tation, I never discovered it ; and I think this would be the 
statement of his classmates could they testify. Although 
%y no means brilliant, he had no rival in the class in accu- 
racy. Hence he graduated at the head of the class solus. 
He was made professor in the Presbyterian institution, 
Oglethorpe University, but soon left that position ; became 
a member of the Baptist church, and then entered the min- 



Memorials of Classmates. 169 

istry of that church. He was called to a professorship iu 
Mercer University, then located at Penfield, Ga., (now at 
Macon, Ga.,) then made president of the same institution. 
In 1856 he was elected to the chair of metaphysics in the 
University of Mississij)pi, while I was connected with that 
institution. He served in that capacity at that place only 
one year ; and, being called to the BajDtist College at George- 
town, Ky., he resigned at Oxford and accepted the Presi- 
dency at Georgetow^n. He remained there but one year, 
returned to Mercer University, and then resigned. He 
died near Atlanta, Ga., in 1871. He was made president 
of the Bible Revision Association; wrote articles for the 
Hevieics and a book called Christian Paradoxes, He be- 
<?ame somewhat learned in his own system of theology ; was 
slightly given to change in his views of some subjects, and 
his firmness on some other points w^as almost properly 
characterized as obstinacy. 

The next member of the class in the order of distinction 
was Thomas F. Scott, of North Carolina. He was the son 
of a veiy plain man of excellent sense and esteemed for his 
consistent piety. He was of humble domestic training, 
and was destined by his father for the trade of a blacksmith. 
Manifesting promising talents, his father gave him some ad- 
Tantages ; and having become hopefully converted, and de- 
termining to prepare for the ministry, he entered the Uni- 
versity of Georgia during my father's presidency, and was 
-educated upon the funds of the Georgia Education Society, 
a Presbyterian institution for candidates for the ministry. 
He w^as always on good terms with his friends in Athens, 
who, seeing his good qualities, made due allowance for his 
self-conceit. On the disruption between the Old and New 
School Presbyterian Church, that occurred in 1837, he joined 
the New School party, and preached for a few years in that 
connection. But to the amazement of all who knew him, he 
entered the fold of the Episcopal Church, and, as some criti- 



170 John N. AVaddel, D. D., LL. D. 

cal acquaintances of his seemed to think, " he saw a mitre 
beckoning him in the distance," and so he left the old church 
of his fathers, became a link in the chain of the "Apostoli- 
cal Succession," and was appointed missionary bishoj) of the 
diocese of Oregon, and there he died. His colleague in the 
second honor was William J. Vason, a Georgian. Through- 
out his entire college course he was a more than ordinary 
scholar, as that word is applied to students in general. He 
was an intellectual man, diligent in his preparation for all 
his exercises, whether in the class-room or in the literary 
society, and stood high in all his classes, and was a fine de- 
claimer and writer. He was also a leader in the Demos- 
thenian Society. After his graduation he entered the legal 
profession, and, as was anticipated from his promising ante- 
cedents in his college course, became a successful lawyer, 
and established himself first in New Orleans ; then, return- 
ing to Georgia, he settled in Augusta, in the practice of law^ 
and there he died. 

The next name among the honor men is that of George 
F. Pierce, w^ho shared third honor with William AV. Smythe, 
both Georgians. Of the whole class he attained the widest 
distinction, and perhaps deservedly reached that position 
on account of the rare combination of attractive qualities he 
possessed. During his college course he was a universal 
favorite, on account of his amiable disx)osition and social 
temperament. He was, at the same time, recognized as a 
person of positiveness of character, and was not in the least 
afraid to stand by his convictions on all proper occasions. 
He had a will of his own, but it was guided by wisdom, 
prudence, truth, and duty. Not extraordinary as a class 
scholar, he was above mediocrity in all his studies. He had 
a bright, but not a profound, mind. His was a brilliant 
imagination, and a fervid and animated elocution, graceful 
in action, and withal attractive in person and of a handsome 
face. He professed religion while in college, and I remem- 



' 



Graduating Class History. 171 

ber the scene that occurred iu the Methodist church when 
he was received into the church, his venerable father, Bev. 
Dr. Lovick Pierce, being present, and I shall never forget 
the manifestation of his father's overwhelming joy on the 
occasion. After graduation, he was received into the minis- 
try of that church, and soon became an eminently useful 
preacher, and, from tlie very beginning of his career, was 
appointed to fill the most important puljiits and most promi- 
nent positions in that denomination. He was at one time 
minister in charge of the Augusta, Ga., M. E. church, and 
at another time the church in Savannah, Ga., and again of the 
Methodist church in Charleston, S. C. In 1838 he was made 
President of the Georgia Female (now Wesleyan) College, in 
Macon, Ga. In 1848 he was elected to the presidency of 
Emory College, at Oxford, Ga. In 1854 he was elected 
bishop of the Methodist Episco^^al Church South, when the 
General Conference met in Columbus, Ga , and for more 
than thirty j'ears filled that high and responsible office to 
the universal acceptance of the church and all his multitude 
of friends and admirers. His death occurred at his home, 
in Sparta, Ga., in 1885, as I am informed. 

"William W. Smythe, his partner in the third honor, had 
the reputation, when in college, of being the most brilliant 
genius in his class. During his fii'st year there he was 
marked out by every one as being, beyond all others, sure 
of the first honor ; but after the earlier classes had been 
passed through by him, he became less and less interested 
in the studies prescribed; was fond of debating, an eloquent 
speaker, studied politics, and devoted much time to the 
study of general history, and the result was that he came 
out in the distribution of honors third, instead of first. 
After graduation he assumed the editorial tripod, and pub- 
lished a political paj^er in "SVashingtou, Ga. When uuUifi- 
cation was exciting the country in South Carolina, and to 
some extent in Georgia, he espoused the Union side of that 



172 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. T>. 

controversy, became unpopular, and lost caste. Not long 
afterwards he died in Washington, Ga., never having rea- 
lized the bright promise of his earlier days„ 

We can only add, that of the five men who attained the 
highest distinction in their college class the man who alone 
tept up his reputation, and even surpassed his promise, at- 
taining a fame which was not dreamed of by his friends, 
was Bishop Pierce. 

As to the remaining members of the class of 1829, they 
may be dismissed with a brief record as individuals, some, 
however, of them becoming distinguished. And yet there 
is one thing to be said of the members of the class, and 
that is, there was a larger proportion of its graduates who 
entered the ministry than of any of those who were in col- 
lege during the period from 1820 to 1829. Our class num- 
bered twenty-one, and sent forth seven ministers of various 
churches, as follows: James M. Adams, Presbyterian min- 
ister ; N. M. Crawford, D. D., Baptist minister ; George Fo 
Heard, Baptist minister ; S. G. Hillyer, D. T>., Baptist min- 
ister; G. F. Pierce, D. D., LL. D., Methodist bishop; 
Thomas F. Scott, D. D., Episcoj^al bishop ; John N. Wad- 
del, D. D., LL. D., Presbyterian. Three of these became 
presidents of colleges and two professors, viz., Crawford, of 
two different institutions and professor in two ; Pierce, pre- 
sident of two different colleges; W^addel, professor in two 
institutions and president, or chancellor, in three. Two of 
these were bishops. Pierce, of the M. E. Church South, and 
Scott, of the P. E. Church South. Of the remaining mem- 
bers of the class five were physicians, one of whom (R. D. 
Moore, of Athens,) attained great distinction; five lawyers, 
two planters, and two concerning whose post-graduate record 
I have no rejDort. This I regret, as they were both most 
creditable students of the University. To sum up these 
statistics, we report of our twenty-one graduates seventeen 
professional men, two j^lanters, and two good citizens, even 
though unrecorded. 



Graduating Class History. 173 

"With these students I passed through the course of pre- 
scribed study in the old State University, from May, 1826, 
to August, 1829. I was on terms of the kindest social in- 
tercourse with all my classmates, but my special intimates 
were Edward J. Erwin, of Morganton, N. C , and Isaac N. 
Moreland, of Eatonton, Ga., and with these two a very re"-- 
ular correspondence was maintained by me for some years 
after graduation. Erwin was some years older than m}^- 
self, but we formed a mutual attachment from being mem- 
bers of the same class and of the Phi Kappi (Literary) So- 
ciety. He was rather solid than brilliant in the character 
of his mind. By reason of his proficiency in mathematics, 
he sustained a highly respectable standing in the class. He 
was my superior in this department, and J led him in the 
classics; so that we mutually supplemented each other. 
Though not a member of the church, he was not outbreak- 
ingly wicked or dissolute. His domestic training was of the 
old-fashioned style, under Presbyterian parents, which, un- 
happily, is becoming obsolete in later days. I am convinced 
from long experience, as well as observation, that such 
training is almost certain to exert a wholesome conservative 
influence for life over children so trained. Even in cases of 
apparent failure at some period of the Hfe of a youth, or 
even in manhood, it is not seldom blessed of God to draw 
him back to the forsaken paths. I am constrained to add 
that, when the failure to realize such favorable results as 
would be expected from such training does ensue in after 
life, I believe the failure is traceable to the absence of faith- 
fulness on the part of the parents more than to any other 
cause. I base my confidence in this position solely upon 
the declaration of sacred Scripture : " Train up a child in 
the way he should go, and when he is old he will not de- 
j)art from it." Er win's record is an illustration in point. 
He left college with credit, married a superior lady, made a 
profession of religion, and became an influential elder of 



174 John N. Waddel, D. T>., LL. D. 

our churcli. It was a kind Providence which gave me the 
privilege of meeting him in Charlotte, N. C, and of sjiend- 
ing several days there with him during the sessions of the 
General Assembly in May, 18G4. 

Of Moreland I could say a great deal, much of which is 
pleasant and much that is sad to recall. He was an or- 
phan, and was sent to college well prepared. His guardian 
was Hon. Tui-ner H. Trippe, of Eatonton, Ga., a first-honor 
graduate of the University, of the class of 1822. Moreland 
was near my age, and there was a good degree of congeni- 
ality between us, and our association was very close and in- 
timate during our entire college course. At the outset he 
was very bright and promising. In the Freshman year, and 
in part of the Sophomore year also, he was estimated as 
among those who stood fair for the first honor, but he be- 
came negligent of his studies, and lost the position which 
he at first held. I kncAV of one trait of his character that 
may have accounted in part for his deterioration. He had 
no ambition to shine in public; and while he held his own 
for the greater part of his course, in mathematics particu- 
larly, he continued his decline until, from being marked out 
as a well-assured candidate for first honor, he was placed 
fourth in grade at graduation. After we separated in 
Athens we kept up corresx)ondence for several years, and it 
was to me a source of much enjoyment. He was a man of 
fine mind and genial temperament, and he and I were con- 
genial si^irits during our college course. He was also ami- 
able, and to this fact I attribute his decline in scholarship, 
as there was no lack of influences all around him which 
tended to encourage neglect of study. AYhat practices or 
habits may have taken hold of him to the production of 
such a result in his college course he never revealed to me 
at all ; nor did I at the time suspect that he had fallen into 
the snares usually laid for students. He settled first in La 
Grange, Ga., in the practice of law, but afterwards in Texas, 



College Standing. 175 

tlien a Mexican province. There lie became a very success- 
ful land surveyor, as mathematics in all its various parts 
■was perfectly familiar to him. The terms on ^vhich he 
made his surveys were, that one-half of all the lands he ran 
out should be his property in fee simple. In this way he 
became an extensive land-holder. "When the Texas revolu- 
tion against the Mexican government began, he became 
commander of an artillery company, or battery, and in the 
decisive battle of San Jacinto he contributed no little to 
that great victory. After peace was made, and Texas be- 
came independent, he was made a judge in the land, but 
did not live much longer. He is an illustration of the perils 
of a moral nature that surround a youth of the very bright- 
est promise when thrown ujDon the world unsupported by 
early pious training and delivered over to his own resources. 
My standing in college was always ver}^ respectable. My 
classical superiority and my good standing in other depart- 
ments enabled me to win very respectable grades, although 
rather deficient in mathematics. I am constrained to record 
here that during my college course the University offered 
more limited advantages to the joublic than it had been able 
to present for two or three previous years, and it has never 
been so ill-sustained by a properly organized corps of in- 
structors at any subsequent period of its history. I do not 
know the reason of this state of the case, unless there was 
a deficiency of funds in consequence of a greater call for 
them to meet other demands. My father was filling the 
office of President to universal acceptance. Dr. Church also 
was giving satisfaction as Professor of Mathematics and 
Astronomy, though, after he gave up this chair to accept 
the presidency on my father's resignation, I was informed 
that the course of mathematics taught at that time was lim- 
ited compared with that of the more distinguished institu- 
tions. I know what the course was at the time of our class 
connection, and I have certain knowledge of the fact that 



176 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

the course has been greatly extended since. We had no 
reason to complain of the course, and we accepted him as 
an able professor, and we had a wholesome dread of him as 
a disciplinarian. Just previous to the beginning of our 
Junior j^ear, as we were about commenciug the study of Na- 
tural Philosophy, the University had been in the enjoyment 
of the invaluable services of Dr. Henry Jackson as professor 
in this department ; but he was very soon laid aside from 
all active service by a sudden attack (I think) of apoplexy. 
This chair then was turned over to his nephew. Professor 
James Jackson, previously in charge of Chemistr^^ etc. He 
taught Natural Philosophy in connection with the other 
branches of science, to which also there was added instruc- 
tion in the French language. Toward the Major (as he was 
called) I always had entertained the kindest personal feel- 
ings of attachment, but my memory brings him up as rather 
an inefficient instructor. That he possessed learning to 
some extent, more, perhaps, than he was credited for, may 
have been true. Of that I was not competent to judge. I 
know, too, that he did not exert much influence over the 
student body. He was a man of literary taste, and had a. 
good private library of the current literature of the day. 
But he was not personally popular among his pupils. He 
must have been considered a consistent Christian, however, 
as he was made an elder of the Athens church. In the 
year 1826 prospects seemed brightening, as the scholarly 
Rev, Stephen Olin, a distinguished Methodist divine from 
the North, was made Professor of Ethics and Meta23hysics. 
We enjoyed the benefit of his instruction during our Sopho- 
more and junior years ; but his health failing, he resigned, 
and although he was reelected and returned to the same 
chair, this occurred fully two years after our graduation. 
He was a charming teacher, and universally loved and es- 
teemed. He was also a great power in the pulpit. He was 
a man of huge physical dimensions, and at times when 



College Standing. 177 

preaching, although by no means boisterous or vociferous, 
he would throw such ner^'ous energy into his gestures, as 
he used his outstretched arms m his animation, that I have 
seen the pulpit shake under the pressure. The end of his 
history is, that he went North, after presiding over Ran- 
dolph-Macon College in Virginia, and was made president 
of the Wesley an Universitj, in Middletown, Conn., in 1842, 
and there he ended his days This was our Faculty as to 
president and professors, to which were added three tutors, 
Alvin Lathrop, a cii)her as to influence and reputation, re- 
minding one more of Irving's Ichabod Crane than anything 
else 5 Ej)hraim S. Hopping, a gentleman and a scholar, 
already alluded to in these pages, as well as m reminiscences 
of my father. I was strongly attached to him, both as a 
man and a teacher, and he was popular m college and 
among the citizens. He was succeeded by an elderly gen- 
tleman, by name B. Bo Hopkins, who made no impression 
on my memory, except that he wore his hair in a queu, and 
occasionally 5delded to the temptation of perpetrating verse- 
making, tinctured with an affectation of dry humor. 

But in the next year, 1830, after the completion of our 
course, the trustees elected a full Professor of Ancient Lan- 
guages, and the Faculty became fuller and more efficient 
as the years passed on, until at the present era it stands 
among the foremost of the colleges and universities of the 
land as regards facilities and advantages for acquiring a 
finished education. 

I close what I have to say of my college life by a refer- 
ence to an experience of my own in some of the events of 
that period, not only as a student, but as connected with 
outside influences. There are always certain exercises form- 
ing integral parts of the curriculum of all such institutions, 
and these exercises were prominent among the requirements 
in the University. They were the exercises of the students 
in elocution and composition. The students of the Junior, 
12 



178 John N, Waddel, D. D , LL. D. 

Sophomore, and tlie Freshman Classes were required to de- 
claim in the College Chapel at the assembly in the after- 
noon at prayers. Two students were appointed in alpha- 
betical order to perform this duty every afternoon, for in 
that early day the students were all required to attend 
prayers twice during the day, at the hour of sunrise in the 
morning and at five o'clock in the afternoon. The perform- 
ance of original composition was also attended to by the 
literary societies. The exercises of the annual commence- 
ment consisted of three days' elocutionary performances by 
the Sophomore, Junior, and Graduating Classes. The first 
day was devoted to a Sophomore prize declamation, in which 
the speakers delivered select orations of eminent men com- 
mitted to memory. The Junior exhibition embraced speci- 
mens of elocution and composition, both, by orators elected 
by the two literary societies to represent these bodies. The 
Faculty always determined the number to be elected by the 
two societies. In case the relative number of members of 
the class belonging to each society' was about equal, the 
number of speakers was also equal ; but where there was a 
majority of the class who belonged to either body, then that 
society would be entitled to a majority of representative 
speakers. The decision of the Faculty in regard to the 
number assigned to each society was made at a period long 
•enough for the speakers-elect to prepare for commencement 
1 recall the case as it related to my class when we were 
Juniors. As already stated, there were twenty-one members 
of the class, of which there were thirteen Demosthenians 
and eight Phi Kappas. The Faculty announced their de- 
cision that the former should elect seven speakers and the 
latter only three. This left me out, as I belonged to the 
Phi Kappa Society, and there were three of the class who 
had already won distinction as society orators. But tte 
members of the Phi Kappa Society, by one of the leading 
members, represented to the Faculty that they felt injustice 



College Declaivlvtions. 179 

liad been meted out to them in assigning their number as 
three, and petitioned to be allowed one more. The Faculty 
assented, and a day was set by the society for holding an 
election for an additional speaker out of the remaining five 
Phi Kappa juniors. I had never felt before any peculiar 
interest personally in public speaking, but had always per- 
formed this college duty rather perfunctorily than other- 
wise ; but when I learned that another speaker was to be 
elected by our society, for the first time in my life the am- 
bition to gain any such position sprang up in my heart. To 
be sure, I used no electioneering arts that were improper, 
but I secured the opportunity of speaking at the evening- 
assembly for prayers by exchanging places with a friend, 
as my time would not occur in regular order on the list in 
time for the election. I merely designed to exert my best 
powers of declamation, so as, if possible, to make a favorable 
impression upon my fellow-students. Accordingly, I took 
my place on the rostrum on the occasion, and, having pre- 
viously selected an extract of Curran's celebrated speech, 
"In defence of Peter Finnerty," and practiced declaiming 
it most assiduously, and committed it perfectly, I felt at the 
time considerably gratified at my success. So, when the 
election came on, I was elected by a handsome majorit3\ I 
must confess, however, that after the victory which I had 
striven so earnestly to secure had actually occurred, and I 
began to realize that I was to make my first appearance be- 
fore a commencement audience, not in a selected piece, but 
with an original oration, I, for the moment, became over- 
whelmed by a consideration of the responsibility I had as- 
sumed, and would have been willing to dispense mth all the 
honor. Nevertheless, I set myself to the work of prepara- 
tion in good earnest, and by exhibition day I found mj'self 
ready to do my part to the best of my ability. 

While in college I wrote four original speeches. This 
Junior oration was my first. It was the arrangement estab- 



180 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

lished then that the Academic year was divided into three 
terms, viz. : The first term began about the first week in 
August, and ended about the middle of November, the long 
vacation taking j)lace then and continuing until the middle 
of January; the second term began then and closed in 
April; the third term began about May 1st and closed 
August 1st. At the end of each term the senior class was 
expected to deliver original speeches. I in common with 
my classmates discharged this duty as a Senior three times. 
These three speeches, together with my Junior oration, make 
four original speeches delivered by me while in college. 
The subjects of these youthful efforts are recorded as fol- 
lows: First (or Junior) speech, "Resolution essential to 
success"; second (or first Senior) speech, "It is better to 
be totally forgotten than to be remembered only to be exe- 
crated"; third (or second Senior) speech, "Equality of male 
and female intellect"; fourth (or Graduating) speech, "The 
inferiority of American literature." My first speech was 
delivered in 1828, when I was but sixteen years, four 
months, and three days old ; my last when I was one year 
older 



CHAPTEE IV. 

Keexections. — Sketch or Athens Lite Aftee Gradttation. — Re- 
moval TO South Cabolina, and Peospects of Beginning the Life 
OF A Teachek. 

THE questiau has often presented itself to my mind, 
Would it not have been better on the whole if I had 
just then, at my imma,ture age, entered upon a college life, 
and, with the benefit of my experience acquired during the 
under-graduate course, might I not have made greater ad- 
vances in knowledge, and would I not in all probabihty have 
been better prepared to enter upon the work of real life ? 
I have often found myself ready to decide that it would 
have been a wise and profitable course for me; but as I 
now look back through my subsequent course of life, with 
the reflected light of the more than three-score and ten 
years of experience I have stored up, I am constrained to 
believe that all my steps have been wisely ordered to the 
accomphshment of the purposes of an infinitely wise God. 
I am now fully persuaded that, had I taken a second coui'se, 
there is no rational ground to believe it Avould have effected 
any material change, or that it would have resulted in any 
signal advantage to myself or to those with whom I have 
been associated. True, I had not been as diHgent as I 
should have been while in college, but I doubt much that a 
repetition of the course would have been attended w4th any 
increase of dihgence. The life which, in God's providence, 
I have been directed to lead, the sphere in which I have 
been moving, and in which I have toiled mainly for nearly 
sixty years (I mean that of a teacher), has been attended 
with a constant stimulus, urging me to increased exertion, 

181 



182 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL D. 

and I have not been permitted to consult my ease or to in- 
dulge an indolent spirit. When I began to teach I was not 
called upon to lead those who were only just beginning their 
scholastic course; but the work before me, and into which I 
found myself compelled to enter, was to give instruction in 
the classics and mathematics. While, therefore, my pro- 
ficiency in language made the teaching of this department 
comparatively pleasant and easy, yet I found that the kind 
of study and the amount of it that I was bound to pursue 
as a teacher was a very different matter compared with that 
expected and required of a college student ; so, under this 
wholesome and abiding pressure, I gave my entire energies 
to the great work which was before me, promising success 
if diligently continued, and threatening disgrace and disas- 
ter if neglected or unfaithfully pursued. This stimulus 
would not have been brought to bear upon me in college, 
and I deem it a great blessing that I was made (somewhat 
reluctantly, I admit, at first) a teacher and began this work 
when only eighteen years of age. I mastered branches, as 
a teacher, with which I would never have become familiar 
had I been influenced only by the usages of colleges. But 
I am anticipating. 

In the d.'iys just then passing Athens was the centre of 
attraction to me, very far above any place on earth. Every 
feature in the landscape was full of charm to me. Even the 
old red-clay hills, the granite bluffs of the little winding 
river Oconee, the artificial w^ater-fall made by the mill-dam, 
the college campus, wdth its fine old oaks, the familiar 
dwellings and cultivated lawns and flow^er-beds, the build- 
ings, libraries, and other appointments of the old University, 
furnished to my untravelled mind an exhaustless supply of 
mental aliment that could hardly be surpassed„ Then 
there were the walks and rides I often enjoyed with friends 
in the environs of the town and the thousand attendant as- 
sociations of the place, which cannot be enumerated, all 



Attachment to Athens. 183 

contributing to make it a dear and cherished home of my 
youth. But the time was hastening on apace when I was 
to leave this spot so dear to my heart. When I did leave it 
afterwards, forming new homes in various parts of the 
world, I found two things to follow in my experience : 1. 
Although I became attached to other spots, yet none such 
attachments as those to Athens were ever formed. 2. Athens 
itself lost afterwards its charm for me. I account for this 
on two principles : First, The days of my 3'outh spent there 
were free from care and anxiety. There were others who 
freed me from all the responsibility of life. I had nothing 
to interfere with my enjoyments, and so it was a sort of ro- 
mantic, poetical life; unreal, I admit, yet I enjoyed it. 
Then I owed much to the associations and the friends of 
my boyhood at that period. On a visit to Athens, many 
years after, I found this impressed upon me (although I had 
known it before), that nothing stands still in this world. 
The little town had become a city. City customs had en- 
sued. Boys and girls whom I had known and loved had re- 
moved from the old town, or, if they still remained, had 
become changed into busy, thoughtful heads of families, 
merchants, lawj^ers, physicians, politicians, mothers, and 
fathers, wdth new cares pressing upon them, the old ro- 
mance of hfe gone forever, besides the fact that a multitude 
of strange faces met me on the streets, on the campus, and 
in all the thoroughfares. So I concluded tbat my Athens 
"was " clean gone forever ! " Henceforward, as to local at- 
tachments, I have felt like a stranger and a pilgrim on 
earth. I have had homes, happy homes, elsewhere and in 
after times ; for with me it is true that 

*' 'Tis home where'er the heart is; " 
yet, I have known of no such local attachments at any place 
as those existing towards the Athens of 1819-'29. 

My mode of life during the six months or more after my 
graduation, until my removal to South Carolina, was rather 



184 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

desultory and inactive. I read some history; I visited oc- 
casionall}^; made a trip or two to Willington on business, and 
was more or less unemployed. The subject of my future 
occupation in connection with the business of making- a liv- 
ing, or exerting useful influence, had not presented itself 
to me for serious consideration. I remember that, at one 
time in my youth, there was an impression prevalent in our 
family, — and I shared in this impression to some extent, — 
that I was to be a preacher. It was but a transient im- 
pression, however, and I have no doubt that, in the view of 
my parents, "the wish was father to the thought," and I 
think it was soon laid aside and abandoned by them all ; I 
know it passed away from my mind, nor did it return for 
long years afterwards. 

It was once suggested to me by one of my brothers that 
I should study law. But that profession offered to me no 
attractions at all, and the suggestion made no impression 
whatever on my mind. I am thankful now that I never 
Iiad inclination in that direction. About this time I recall 
an occurrence, that some might consider merely casual, and 
so it seemed then to me. It, however, I have since thought, 
settled the question of my destination in part it least. My 
teacher, Mr. Dobbins, who was also my first cousin, and my 
eldest brother, James (both professional teachers), were vis- 
iting at my father's, during my unemployed time after 
graduation, and in the course of the conversation the ques- 
tion was asked by one of the visitors, addressed to my father: 
''"What are you going to make of John?" To which he 
promptly replied: "A teacher." They both gave the opin- 
ion that he "would do better to put me to the plough," 
(^. e,) make a farmer of me. But he was immovable. The 
ground of their expressed ojiinion, as well as I recall it, was 
that the management of boys in that age had become a 
matter of very great difficulty. My father said nothing 
more to me on the subject at that time, but he had it aH 



Adopts the Professioii of Teacher. 185 

•arranged in his own mind, and it was decided, not only that 
I was to be teacher, but the place of my first efforts in that 
line was even then fixed, no doubt. It became known in 
some way that teaching would be my occupation, and an 
application came for my sei'vices from an insignificant little 
place, called Mallorysville, on the direct route from Athens 
to Willington. It was a very small, miserable place, more 
famed for being a resort for those who were fond of the 
saloon than for anything. To this place I was invited to go 
and take charge of the town-school, wdth a salary of four 
hundred doUars and board as my compensation. But my 
father strenuously objected to the plan, and I think wisely. 
His reasons for his decision were my youthful age, and the 
imdesirableness of the society. 

The world moved on, time passed away in the usual mo- 
notonous manner until February, 1830, when, all needed 
preparations having been made, leave-taking public and 
private having occurred, the family, consisting of my father, 
mother, younger sister, brother William and his newlj'-mar- 
ried wife {nee Miss Hilliard), with myself, left Athens, and 
in due course of time were all domiciled once more upon 
the soil that we had abandoned ten years previously, and 
which gave the most of us birth. 



CHAPTEE Y. 

FiEST School. — Death of my Mothek. — Country Life. — A CoLiiEOE 
Associate. — My Habits. 

ON oiir settlement once more at old Willington, after our 
long exile from its familiar scenes, the first object before 
■QS was to engage in some occupation adapted to our present 
circumstances and surroundings, each in his own specialty. 
My father arranged his preaching appointments at "Willing- 
ton and Rocky River; he superintended and directed the 
buildings, and prepared to carry on his farming operations, 
making the needed efforts to ensure a comfortable living. 
My brother "William, who, in his filial devotion to his mo- 
ther, had given up a prospect of lucrative practice of his 
profession in Athens, in order to attend her in her last ill- 
ness and mitigate her sufferings as far as possible, was just 
beginning to establish himself as a physician in the neighbor- 
hood. I, too, was now to assume the office of a teacher for 
the first time, and accordingly on Monday morning, March 
1, 1830, I made my debut as a pedagogue. The room used 
for the purposes of the school had been once occupied as a 
store, and afterwards as the office of a physician of the olden 
time of Willington, who had long passed away. It was in 
rather a dilapidated condition, but was soon put in condition 
to answer the purpose of a school-room. It was located im- 
mediately on the great market road to Augusta, Ga. 

Here I began a career which, with a short interval, I have 
l^rosecuted as my main life-work during a period of more 
than half a century. Better and more convenient arrange- 
ments for the school-work were pro\'ided in due course of 
time, and in a few years after, a respectable house was 

186 



First School and Pupils. 187 

erected at another place iu the neighborhood, as the number 
of students in attendance began to increase and the reputa- 
tion of the school was extended. During the first year of 
its existence the number of students was not large, and but 
few much advanced. I remember only one, however, who 
was ignorant of the first principles of English. He was a 
bright little fellow, by name James Clay, and about him I 
have always remembered two things ; 1, He was the only 
pupil whom I ever taught to read. 2, He was among the 
very best readers I have ever known. Of the rest, there 
were three j^oung men, all my seniors in age, and one of 
them seven years older than myself. The three wore 
engaged in the higher branches of study, and their names 
were respectively, James F. Gibert, David Willard, and 
Williams Truwitt. The first of these I prepared for the 
University of Georgia, where he was graduated in the class 
of 1834. Subsequently he finished his Theological course of 
study at the Columbia Seminar}', and filled the pulpit of the 
Lebanon Church, near Abbeville, S. C, for many years with 
great acceptance and usefulness, and there he ended his life 
of toil in the ministry only a few years since. David Wil- 
lard, prepared himself to be a teacher, and, after sj^euding 
some time with me, he went West and taught many years 
there, nor did I hear of him for ten years. About the year 
1842, when I had established a High-school iu Eastern Mis- 
sissippi, as I was engaged in teaching, he entered the room. 
and announced himseK as David Willard, my former pupil 
at Willington. He had grown quite gray, in old bachelor- 
hood, and proposed to me to become a pupil of mine again. 
After giving an outline of his history from the period of our 
separation, he stated that he had lost several good schools 
by reason of his ignorance of Theoretical aud Practical Sur- 
veying, and that the object of his present visit was to get 
from me the necessaiy instruction in that department. He 
remained with me for some time, and as that subject was 



188 John L. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

one I had been teaching, and in which I then had a class of 
students, he entered the school and soon mastered the sub- 
ject, and "went on his way rejoicing." The third of these 
students of my first school was Williams Truwitt, who 
became a merchant, and settled in Mobile, where I met 
him once at least, if not more than once. I have lost sight 
and knowledge of him. 

If I mistake not as to the time, it was in the year 1831 
that I had three very small boys, who came over from 
Lincoln Count}^, Ga., just beyond the Savannah Eiver, 
whose names were David Eemson, Jackson Currj-, and 
Jabez L. M. Curry. Of the history of the first of these I 
have no knowledge; he was a fine manly orderly boy at 
school. The second was graduated at Athens, Ga., in the 
Class of 1842, and died in the service of the Confederate 
States. The third is the distinguished Jabez Lamar Mon- 
roe Curry, who was graduated also at Athens in the Class 
of 1843, and has filled with such phenomenal success many 
of the highest and most responsible positions in the United 
States. 

I must be permitted just here to be somewhat personal, 
without being chargeable with egotism. I have already 
stated in a preceding chapter that I passed through col- 
lege with a respectable standing as a student, and I have 
tried to show that the kind of application expected and 
demanded of a teacher was of a character totally differing 
in degree from that which might be admitted in the case of 
a college student. Of m^^self, I may say that I never had 
known what genuine, close application to study was until I 
began to teach. I found in myself a xorinciple at the very 
outset which has acted upon me throuchout my whole teach- 
ing Hfe as a stimulus to study. It was a dread of failure in 
the discharge of the functions of a teacher. This led to the 
formation of a resolution, which never lost its power over 
me, viz. : that I never should appear before a class in reci- 



I 



The Teacher's Influence. 189 

tation without having thoroughly mastered the subject 
beforehand. From this resolution it has been my unvary- 
ing purpose never to depart. I commend the practice to all 
who undertake the great resi3onsibility of training the young 
mentally, as well as morally. I add the word Tnoralhj be- 
cause of m}'' deep conviction that the moral training of 
youth is inseparably connected with the mental instruction 
imparted. Fui'thermore, the moral character of the teacher, 
as he appears before his pupils day by day, is one of the 
most potent elements in the estabhshment of a proper influ- 
ence over them. This is what has been understood by the 
term "unconscious tuition." A teacher, therefore, who so 
far ignores his obligations as to allow himself to be found 
guilty of ignorance of the subject he professes to teach is 
thereby (by example) encouraging deception, or the attempt 
to deceive, and exposing himself to deserved contempt of his 
pupiko As a general fact, no critics are so prompt and cor- 
rect in detecting such unworthy pretensions as those who 
are in the attitude of learners. A true teacher, of course, 
would prefer the reputation of being upright and honest to 
that of learning, and if he has committed an error in his 
instructions, will be the first to acknowledge it and to cor- 
rect it. But the safer plan to be adopted is always to pre- 
pare himself thoroughly and minutely on every detail of the 
subject of instruction, so as to avoid the charge of professing 
to teach that of which he is ignorant. Perhaps this habit, 
in my case, might have influenced me to thorough prelimi- 
nary preparation in any other profession. But I am con- 
scious that it has exei-ted a wholesome influence over me all 
through my career as a teacher, and that in this way I have 
been enabled to do better work, and that I have accom- 
plished a greater amount of good for myself and for others, 
than I could have done in any other department of human 
effort. 

But to resume my stor}% about a month after I had com- 



190 John N. Waddel, D. D, LL. D. 

menced my labors as a teacher, I was awakened one morn- 
ing very early by a servant ■with the intelligence that my 
mother had been violently attacked with one of the par- 
oxysms of her disease, and was worse than usual. It was 
the morning of the Sabbath, April 4th, 1830, a bright and 
lovely spring day. When I entered her room she was 
walking about, leaning upon my father's arm, for such was 
her bodily agony that she could not recline upon the bed. 
All the absent members of the family had arrived except 
one, and were present to witness her dying struggle. She 
was in constant pain, and could speak little and only in 
ejaculatory prayer. She continued to walk the floor with- 
out our being able to relieve her in the least, until at last 
she became exhausted and was placed upon her bed. Yet 
even here such were her unutterable tortures that it was 
with difficulty she could be kept in bed by two of us, and, 
after at least eight hours of mortal agony, she sank back 
and died in my arms. She was about fifty-nine years of 
age. She was the daughter of Jesse Pleasants, of Powha- 
tan county, Va., and there she was born. This was my first 
great sorrow. My father was not demonstrative to his 
children, but he doubtless felt a warm affection for them 
all. But none of us ever doubted the deep and absorbing 
tenderness of her love for us. Oh, how darh did the world 
appear to me on that hright Sabbath day ! Gloom for the 
time settled down upon the future, and I felt as I had never 
felt before, but as I have often felt since, that life's charm 
for me was fled forever ! We buried her in the grand and 
beautiful old oak grove around the church, and there we 
left her to sleep in Jesus till the resurrection morn. She 
lived to see all her children grown and three of them mar- 
ried. During her married life no death had occurred in 
her immediate family. Soon after her death there was a 
general dispersion of the family. Dr. WilHam W. Waddel, 
the third son, having accomphshed the end for which he 



A RECONCILIA.TION. 191 

had accompanied the family to Willington, viz., to attend 
upon our mother as long as she required his attention, felt, 
under the circumstances, that it was no longer obligator}' 
on him to sacrifice what he believed to be his professional 
interests by burying himself in the country' in a region 
already supplied with physicians. He returned to Athens 
and made that his home. My sister Mary Anna accom- 
panied him, and spent some time with his family and other 
friends. My elder sister returned to her home in South 
Georgia. My brother, Rev. I. W. Waddel, returned to his 
field of labor in Georgia. My father was absent from home 
a great deal of the time. I was left alone, with no white 
person to break the solitude, except the housekeeper and 
her son, a boy of nine or ten years of age. It was a lonely 
sort of life to which I was consigned, and my only resource, 
when not employed in teaching or studying, was in receiv- 
ing and answering letters from my friends and classmates 
abroad. 

I think it was during this year that a college friend, 
George McDuffie Vance, between whom and myself quite 
an intimacy had grown up at Athens, came and took up his 
abode in the neighborhood. He was a nephew of Hon. 
George McDuffie, and came to reside with his uncle at 
Cherry Hill, his beautiful country'- seat, which was only a 
mile distant from my father's residence. Unfortunately, 
during our college course, a society cohision had occurred 
between us, and we had not spoken, nor had we held inter- 
course with each other, for about two jears previous to his 
time of arrival. The embarrassment into which we were 
thrown by a constant liability of meeting, and yet forbidden 
by pride to exchange w^ords even of social courtesy, induced 
in us the consideration of a more rational method of living. 
"WTiether or not I should ever have made the initiative of a 
reconciliation I do not know. It would have reflected no 
discredit upon me at all as I now review the matter, but as 



192 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

I remember the origin of the case, I was not the aggressor. 
Still not a vestige of ill-feeling or enmit}^ had ever been 
cherished by myself toward him. Time is a gentle and 
soothing healer of wounds inflicted in such contests. Ac- 
cordingly, my surprise was a very agreeable one when one 
day, as I sat in my school-room, a servant rode up and 
handed me a note from George to this effect : 

"Dear Sir : We are placed in an awkward position rela- 
tive to each other, living in the same neighborhood, and 
constantly thrown together without intercourse. I assure 
you that I have never suffered my feelings to become embit- 
tered towards you in any degree. If, therefore, you are 
walling to 'bury the hatchet,' and to meet me as a friend, 
I should be glad to have you signify it by a note. 

George M. Vance." 

Of course, I gladly acceded to this frank and gentlemanly 
proxDosition, and we continued, ever afterwards, the most 
sincere friends, and his society tended very materially to 
the mitigation of my loneliness. 

My first year's income amounted to something above $300; 
but really I needed little, as I paid no board expenses, 
hving as I did at home. At this period of my life I was 
free from aspirations for great things ; I gave no thought to 
any greater position than was then assigned me, supposing 
that there was none such in reserve for me in the future. 
Perhaps I may best describe my condition of mind as one of 
quiescence. My morals were good. I taught five days in 
the week, studied hard at night, sometimes courted the 
Muses, visited to some extent ; rode to the post-office occa- 
sionally, attended preaching, without receiving the impres- 
sion from it that was due; admired the girls without falling 
in love with them, and so closed the year 1830, quietly and 
contentedly, if not profitably. 



CHAPTER yi. 

My Feelings and Views on the Subject of Religion. — My Father's 
Preaching, and my Views of it at that Time. — Some Notice op 
Me. McDuffie and Othees of his Neighboes. 

IT is of some interest doubtless to my friends to know 
something of my personal views and feelings upon the 
all-important subject of religion. I had reached my nine- 
teenth year ; I was known to be a moral young man ; had 
been religiously trained from my childhood ; and attended 
all the services of religious worship within my reach. But 
I had never made a public profession of religion, and yet I 
do not think that I could be called a hardened sinner, and 
I am sure I was not habitually "walking in the counsel of 
the ungodly;" I never used profane language ; I never was 
intoxicated with ardent spirits; nor was I a brawler, or 
fond of controversy, either mental or physical ; nor did I ever 
descend to the lower' deeps of vice. Yet I look back with 
shame, and regret the facts of my history and character as 
they then existed. In the midst of all the precious oppor- 
tunities and advantages by which I had been surrounded 
during all my previous life, the truth is that I was a careless 
and indifferent sinner, nor do I believe that I had ever been 
very seriously impressed upon the subject of religion. I 
remember that, during my childhood, I had a dream, re- 
peated more than once, that the judgment-day had come. 
This resulted, I think, from a catechetical exercise conducted 
by my father every Sabbath evening, in which all the chil- 
dren of the family and servants were taught a simple system 
of divine truth, the closing questions and answers of which, 
"were as follows: 

193 



194 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

*'QuES. When will Jesus Christ come again?" 

*'Ans. At the last day." 

" QuES. What will He come for ?" 

"Ans. To judge the world." 

''QuEs. Who will be judged?" 

"Ans. Men and devils." 

"QuES. Who will be on His right hand ?" 

*'Ans. The righteous." 

'' QuES. Who will be placed on His left hand ?" 

"Ans. The wicked." 

"QuES. What will He say to the righteous?" 

"Ans. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king- 
dom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." 

^'QuES. What will He say to the wicked?" 

"Ans. Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared 
for the devil and his angels." 

My dream presented a view of this awful scene : the person 
of the Lord Jesus, sitting upon the clouds, with outstretched 
arms, with a long line of persons on each hand! But in 
every repetition of the dream, I was condemned to the left 
hand, to my unspeakable terror. But though this feeling 
and impression was very dreadful for a time, it was soon 
banished, and did not prevent me from the usual enjoy- 
ments of careless childhood. I call to mind also the fact, 
that during my college life, when there occurred a meeting 
of more than ordinary interest in the community of Athens, 
and among the students, under the preaching of such men 
of God as Rev. J. C. Stiles, Rev. S. S. Davis, and Rev. A. H. 
Webster, I went with others to the front seat in the chapel 
where the services were conducted, and signified in this way 
my desire to be pra^^ed for by the people of God. But I 
was then not very deeply moved, or under conviction, as I 
have no recollection of going forward again. Another re- 
miniscence comes up, connected with this subject wmch will 



Indifference Toward Religion. 195 

show my indifference to the matter of personal religion more 
clearly still. Some time after these meetings had closed, 
I was riding with my father out to a country church near 
Athens, known by the name of " Sandy Creek," where he 
sometimes preached, and he said to me among other things, 
that he had requested Eev. J. 0. Stiles to have a private 
conversation with me on the subject of religion, and that he 
had reported the result of that interview in these words, 
"He is bullet-proof !" 

The Doctor may have used language somewhat over- 
wrought, as his method of expression was always vigor- 
ous; but all he meant by it was that he had made no im- 
pression on me that he could perceive. He did, however, 
reach me to a greater extent than he supposed. I felt the 
effect of his conference, though it passed away for the time 
being, and the consideration of my spiritual state relapsed 
into quiet and untroubled indifference again, and I continued 
in the postponement of this subject for many years after. 
My father, on the occasion referred to, made no comment 
upon the case, save to express his surprise and deep sorrow 
when the report was made to him of the result of the inter- 
view. So it passed. It may be here stated, by way of antici- 
pation, that this noble and godly minister of Jesus Christ, 
Dr. Stiles, lived to meet me long years after that fruitless 
interview, as a minister of the blessed gospel which I then 
declined in my folly to embrace. 

I have not given a full statement of some of the charac- 
teristics of my father's style of preaching, and it may as 
well be given here. I attended his preaching during this 
period of my life, when I was more competent to judge of 
such subjects than I had ever been previously. He w^as un- 
doubtedly a specimen of the old school of diAdnes. He never 
wrote out his sermons in full. As I have stated in his hfe, 
he used skeletons entirely. But he was decidedly opposed 
to using a manuscript in the pulpit, and always spoke with 



196 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

disapproval of the practice. I have never known any one 
who formed and aimed at a more elevated standard of the 
excellency of the Christian ministry than he did. I know 
also that he never for a moment entertained the thought 
that he, in his simple and unpretending methods, was any 
worthy illustration of his own ideal. The prominent char- 
acteristics of his preaching were simplicity, earnestness, di- 
rectness, and fidelity in jjresenting divine truth. He was 
always animated in his delivery, and seldom allowed him- 
self less than an hour for a sermon. His systematic divi- 
sion of his discourses, into the several topics which he 
deemed necessary fully to develop the meaning of his text, 
led to a ridiculous caricature of his style by heedless and in- 
attentive listeners among the waggish students of the Uni- 
versity during his Presidency. As he was in the habit of 
dividing the discourse into at least three parts, and these 
into subdivisions as was needful, he always used for the sake 
of perspicuity such words as ^'once more,'' or, '^ again,'' 
and having exhausted a particular topic he used the word 
"■finally." Of course he passed through the remaining 
heads or divisions in a similar method. The boys, there- 
fore, disappointed that, after using the word " finally," he 
still continued to preach on, wrote in large letters over the 
pulpit in the College Chapel, where he was in the habit of 
preaching, "2 c7o not wish to be tedious; once more, finally , 
and agahi I " 

He was often a listener himself, and to show the force 
of that habit of his teaching, of prompting a student who 
seemed at a loss for a word, I mention an incident that I 
witnessed, occurring on occasion of an afternoon service in 
the chapel. An excellent Methodist minister was preach- 
ing, and as he designed at a certain point in the sermon to 
quote our Saviour's denunciation of the cities wherein his 
mighty works had been done, he began by the expression of 
the first part, "Woe unto thee;" but there the next word 



His Father's Style of Pleachinq 197 

seemed to have been forgotten, and he came to a full pause. 
The omission was immediately supplied by my father, who 
in his deep voice uttered the word, "Chorazin," relieved 
the preacher, and he continued the discourse without farther 
interruption. The effect was somewhat startling, but cre- 
ated no disturbance or disorder in the audience whatever. 

His style was strictly didactic, without flowers or rhetori- 
cal display, using only the pure Anglo-Saxon, of which he 
was a master, and his illustrations were always plain and 
striking. To such auditors as loved exciting, sensational 
preaching he was not likely to be attractive ; yet his preach- 
ing always was full of the marrow of the gospel, and plain, 
devout Christian worshippers prized it as a precious privi- 
lege to sit under his ministr3^ His custom at the country 
church of "Willingtou was to preach two sermons on the 
Sabbath during the summer season, with a suitable interval 
between the two discourses. Not infrequently the two were 
on the same subject, the afternoon sermon concluding the 
discussion. One remark may be added: Such preaching 
was eminently fitted to the instruction and building up of 
his people, or any church which had his services as a 
j)reacher. He was an Old School Presbyterian, thorough 
and unmistakable. He, at a very early period, discerned 
the signs of corruption m the church which grew out of the 
plan of union of 1801, and I well remember how he was an- 
noyed by the periodical arrival by mail of a pamphlet called 
Tlie Home Missionary, edited by Absalom Peters, and then 
considered the organ of the New-School party. 

He was sound, judicious, and uncompromising in his or- 
thodoxy, and was one of the j)rominent landmarks of Calvin- 
istic theology in those days. If any reader should be 
curious to know why a Presbyterian preacher so widely 
known as he was holds no historical position among the 
men who were prominent in the great division of the church 
of the year 1837, it may be sufficient to state the fact that it 



198 John N. AVaddel, D. D., LL. D. 

was just at that juncture that, by the providence of the di- 
vine Being who rules in the church and the world, he was 
brought into that state of bodily and mental weakness 
which ended his life work and withdrew him from all par- 
ticipation in public enterprise. 

I have said that my father's residence was within a short 
distance of the home of Hon. George McDuffie. This made 
it the custom and the pleasure of this great man to attend 
on the services of the Willington church. He was always 
present, when at home, during the first sermon, but invari- 
ably took his departure after that. Mr. McDuffie was never 
a member of any church, so far as I have ever heard. He 
was a very remarkable man. In common with msmj of our 
most eminent citizens, he was of very humble origin. The 
following statement is in substance, but somewhat abridged, 
the same with that found on pages 44-48 of a monograph 
by Mr. C. Meriwether, of Johns Hopkins University, fur- 
nished by him to the Bureau of Education, Department of 
the Interior. It is, in the form here given by me, simply a 
condensed extract " from an unpublished eulogy upon Mr. Mc- 
Duffie, by the late Hon. Armistead Burt, of Abbeville, S. C"i 

He received the elementary course of education — reading, 
writing, and arithmetic — sufficiently to qualify him to be a 
merchant's clerk in a country store, and he was employed in 
that capacity by a Mr. Hayes, whose place of business was 
in Columbia county, Ga., some thirty miles from Augusta. 
He soon developed capacity for a larger business, and, on 
the recommendation of Mr. Hayes, he obtained a situation 
as clerk in the house of Calhoun & "Wilson, in Augusta. 
Mr. Calhoun was a brother of the great statesman, John C. 
Calhoun, and Mr. William Calhoun was another brother, 
who was a planter on the Savannah river, near Dr. Waddel's 
academy at Willington. The latter having business fre- 
quently in Augusta, saw Mr. McDuffie in the family of his 
brother James, and being "prepossessed by his appearance. 



Hon. George McDuffie. 199 

and favorably impressed by the accounts given of him by 
Mr. James Calhoun, Mr. AYilliam Calhoun took him, in 
1810, to his home, when he entered the Academy ^ in the 
twentieth year of his age. He remained a student of Dr. 
"Waddel's Academy until December, 1811, and was admitted 
into the Junior Class of the South Cnroliua College, then 
under the presidency of the eminent Dr. Maxcy. He was 
graduated in 1813, "not only with the first honors of his 
class, but with a reputation that might have satisfied the 
aspirations of genius and the hopes of toil." He rose ra- 
pidly at the bar, and was elected to Congress early in his 
career, where he achieved for hiniselt in a very short time a 
reputation as a great orator and national statesman. His 
oratory was impressive, and, when glowing with his theme, 
he w^as vehement. In his argumentation he was profound 
and logical ; in debate, and before a popular audience dur- 
ing an exciting canvass upon some of the "burning ques- 
tions" and issues of the day, such as the tariff and the doc- 
trine of nullification, he was often terribly severe in his de- 
nunciations when thoroughly aroused. He was regarded as 
the peer of WilUam C. Preston and Hugh S. Legare, and it 
has been said that " the annals of history, ancient or modern, 
have no record of three men so endowed with the divine 
gift of eloquence in any age or country at the same time 
and in the same locality on the stage of life." 

The great theme which absorbed the attention t)f the 
whole country. North and South, was the tariff, and in the 
discussion of it Mr. McDuffie set himself with all his powers 
against it. He was one of the champions of State rights, 
of the Calhoun school, and when the State passed the ordi- 
nance of nulHfication, he was one of the leaders in that great 
pohtical conflict. Having been elected Governor of South 
Carolina, he turned his attention to the study of military 
science, was made major-general, and was instrumentiil 
in diffusug a great deal of knowledge, and insi)iring a great 



200 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

degree of spirit into tlie general mass of the people. Mr. 
McDuffie was engaged in three duels with Col. Gumming, 
of Augusta, Ga., the grounds of which I never knew. In 
one of these encounters, he received his adversary's ball in 
his hip, which was never extracted. He lost his health en- 
tirely, and became almost helpless. I have been told by 
Dr. Longstreet, the eminent judge, who presided over the 
University of Mississippi)! with eminent success, and after- 
wards over the South Carolina College, and who had been a 
fellow-student with Mr. McDuffie at Wilhngton, that he paid 
Mr. McDuffie a visit at his residence, Cherry Hill, in his 
last feeble days, and left him with the hope that he was a 
Christian. Mr. McDuffie was married to Miss Singleton, 
of the High Hills of Santee, who died shortly after mar- 
riage, leaving a daughter, who was aftei'wards married to 
Oen. Wade Hampton, and died. This is, as nearly as I can 
secure the facts, a brief sketch of the great orator's life. 
Others of the regular attendants upon my father's preaching 
Tvere two men of wealth, as the term wealth was at that time 
applied, i, e., they were owners of large cotton plantations 
and were large slave-holders. These were AVm. Calhoun, 
Esq., and Gen. William A. Bull. Of the first gentleman I 
have a distinct recollection in my boyhood as being some- 
what advanced in life, and that he lived to be quite an old 
man. He was the oldest brother of John C. Calhoun, and 
the brother of my father's first wife. It has always been a 
source of gratification to us all, that there existed during 
my father's life a most cordial and miinterrupted social in- 
tercourse and friendship between the Calhoun family and 
our family. This was the case also with his and their de- 
scendants as long as they continued to reside near each 
other. The gentleman just referred to, Mr. Wm. Calhoun, 
was by no means a professing Christian, and made no pre- 
tensions of that kind. Yet he was a friend of my father, 
and attended his preaching, was absorbed in his farm or 
planting interests, made money, raised a large family, and 



Gen. William A. Bull. 201 

■died in old age. The other gentleman, Gen. Bull, was an 
elderly gentleman, never married, grew rich by cotton-plant- 
ing, was a member of the South Carolina Legislature, and 
a very prominent politician, an old pupil of the "Willington 
Academy, a friend and admirer of my father, and like Mr. 
Calhoun and Mr. McDuffie, was not a member of the church, 
but a regular attendant on his preaching. The story of the 
closing of his life is full of sadness in the review. Without 
descending to particulars, it is sufficient to record that he 
was murdered by some of his negroes. 

He was the son of a most devoted Christian mother, who 
was an intimate friend of my parents, and an earnest mem- 
ber of the WiUington church. His only brother, who sur- 
vived him, was an elder of that church, as far back as my 
recollection carries me, and though eccentric, was devotedly 
pious. These have all passed away, and none survive now^ 
to bear their name in the Willington settlement. The name 
of Calhoun still lingers on the list of citizens in other and 
distant regions of our country, but neither at Willington nor 
elsewhere, can there bo found one who bears the name and 
descent of McDuffie or of Bull. 

The congregation was made up of a highly resi:>ectable 
and intelligent class, who, with their children and grand- 
children, were the genuine descendants of the original 
Huguenots who escaped from France in 1763, and settled 
in Abbeville district in 1764, and in the congregation was a 
large proportion of Scotch-Irish people, who came there, 
many of them, from Charleston. A more substantial popu- 
lation, and one more thoroughly imbued with the true prin- 
ciples of civil and religious freedom, and more devoted 
friends of Christian education, could not be readily met 
with in the State. It was in the midst of such a community 
that my father spent many of his years most fruitful of 
beneficial results as a teacher and preacher, and here his 
own children, and those of many of his neighbors, were 
moulded and trained for this life and for eternity. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

Some Cikcumstances Connected with my First Couktship and 
Maekiage. 

THE stoiy of my life has now reached that point which, in 
most young men, is to be regarded as of rather critical 
interest. I mean the period when the first emotions of the 
heart are awakened toward the gentler sex. There were 
very few young ladies in the neighborhood at the time of 
my home-life there, from 1830 to 1832. But there were 
four with whom I was on social terms, and who were all 
entitled to high respect and esteem for their excellent quali- 
ties. Miss Mary Rogers and Miss Mary E. Mor ague were both 
descended directly from the Huguenots, while Miss Catherine 
Noble and Miss Martha A. Robertson were of Scotch -Irish 
descent. "With all these I was on terms of intimate friend- 
ship, and admired in them what constituted the peculiar 
attraction of each. With regard to Miss Robertson, the last 
mentioned of the group, she was a school-girl of fifteen 
years of age when I formed her acquaintance. She was 
the youngest child of Mapr-George Robertson, who, like 
many other gentlemen of the lower country and residents of 
Charleston, had retired from the business of the cit}'' and 
engaged in the occupation of planting, purchasing a fine 
body of bottom-land on the Savannah river, within a few 
miles of Willington. He was, according to tradition, the 
beau ideal of a perfect gentleman of the old school, a class 
of men who were more frequently found among Charles- 
tonians than among those of any other region of country or 
city. I must be pardoned for the assertion that I have 
never known the old-time Charleston gentleman surpassed 

202 



Early Courtship. 203 

in all the elements of chivalric and elevated honor. Major 
Robertson was regarded as one of the ornaments of the Wil- 
lington communit}'' during his life, and though he never 
made a public profession of religion, or connected himself 
with the chm'ch, yet he was a strong supporter and a regu- 
lar attendant upon my father's preaching, with his family, 
and was highly exemplary in his Hfe and character. He 
died of bilious fever in 1817. On his dying-bed my father 
visited him, and hopes were entertained that he died in 
peace. 

But to the young lady herself I return, and have only to 
say, without needless record of matters personal and pri- 
vate, that altogether, to my view she was possessed of all 
those nameless attractions, both of mind and person, that 
were well calculated to win my admiration and esteem, and 
which grew to absorbing affection for her. She was bright, 
but very timid and shrinking. She was well educated, her 
instructor being a gentleman of high reputation as a scholar 
and teacher, Eev. Wm. B. Johnson, of the Baptist Church, 
who taught in Edgefield a school for young ladies. So as 
time passed on I found that my feelings toward her were 
becoming more earnest than I had ever before exjDerienced, 
and I resolved to make them known to her at some suitable 
opportunity. It is very true that I was quite young to be 
thinking about a wife, but neveriheless I was very earnest 
in the matter. It may be remarked as some palliation of 
my youthful indiscretion that I had been set to work in the 
serious business of hfe as truly as though I had attained to 
the legal age of citizenship, and I suj)pose my views of other 
matters kept pace with my position in the world. "The 
course " of my love, just as the poet testifies of other similar 
matters, did not " run smooth." 

It is entirely unnecessary that I should dwell minutely 
upon the details connected with the prosecution of my suit, 
and the hajDpy consummation. In the view of many who 



204 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

miglit read such statements, such matters are regarded as 
partaking too much of the sacred in their nature to be 
dwelt upon in such a record as this. That there were diffi- 
culties to be overcome in the progress of this affair may be 
admitted, but their record is not called for at this period, 
when most of those who were connected with them have 
passed away, and the survivors have that knowledge of 
them that needs no such record. I, in due time, enjoyed a 
favorable ©importunity of communicating to Miss Robertson 
my proposal, which afterwards was accepted with a condi- 
tion annexed, viz , that the full consummation of our en- 
gagement should be delayed for four years. Soon after her 
mother and herself paid a visit to her eldest sister, who had 
been married and settled in Green County, Ala., some time 
pre\ious to this event. They had been absent some months, 
when it became a matter of importance for me to take a trip 
westward, and I conceived the idea of making a visit to her, 
and endeavoring to prevail upon her to shorten the period of 
our engagement. This I was very well assured would be a 
task not of easy accomplishment, yet I entered upon it with 
a determination to use all lawful arguments to ensure suc- 
cess. I reached my destination after a rather tedious and 
fatiguing travel of four hundred miles, by private convey- 
ance, early in November. I was not by any means hope- 
less of success in my enterprise, as the families "on both 
sides of the house" were known to approve our proposed 
union, and my father and all my friends were prepared to 
receive her with open arms of welcome. After presenting 
every available argument it pleased a kind Providence to 
influence her to consent to my proposition, and to give me 
success in the great object of my mission. On the,.27tli.iiay 
of November, 1832, at the residence of E. G. Qnarles (her 
brother-in-law and her guardian), we were united in mar- 
riage, the ceremony being performed by Rev. John H. 
Gray (the husband of her other sister), she being in the 



Marriage, 205 

age and I in my twenty-fii'st. We 
returned to South Carolina, arriv- 
ing at WilHngton, wliich was destined to be our home on 
or near the 25th December, 1832. 



seventeenth year of her age and I in my twenty-fii'st We 
left soon^after this and returned to South CaroHna, arriv- 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Incidents Public ^and Peivate Dubing 1832-'33. — Sketch op J. C. 
Calhoun, — Nullification. 

ON my return, I resumed work in the school in connection 
with my older brother, James P. Waddel, who for a 
term of years having been rector of the Richmond Academy, 
in Augusta, Ga., had resigned that position and removed to 
Willington. The school was conducted under our joint con- 
trol, and my home was happily and comfortably fixed in my 
father's house for the time being. One of the first things 
that met my view on reaching home from Alabama was the 
existence and excitement of a protracted meeting then in 
progress in the church and congregation, under the conduct 
of the eminent revivalist. Rev. Dr. Daniel Baker. On this 
occasion he did not fail to approach me personally on the 
Bubject of my soul's salvation. I listened to him quietly 
without being moved or seriously impressed, just as had 
been the case in my experience on all similar previous oc- 
casions. In reviewing these incidents in my historj^ and in 
recalling the habit of postponing the consideration of per- 
sonal religion which at that time characterized me, I know 
very well that it was not the result of a want of the convic- 
tion of my judgment as to the vast importance of the sub- 
ject. I had not then, nor ever in my life, the slightest ten- 
dency to indulge in skeptical infidelity ; but the habit grew 
out of my quiet preference for the passing enjoj^ments of 
the world and a false (though common) persuasion that to 
become a Christian would interfere with those enjoyments. 
I was "blind and in the dark"; but the long-suffering j)a- 
tience and forbearing love of God still tolerated me, and in 

206 



Prospectinq Tour to Florida. 207 

His own g-ood time I became a subject of His converting 
grace. This, however, was brought about under pecuUar 
circumstances, the narrative of which will be postponed to 
a future period 

The patronage of the AYilhngton Academy not presenting 
an inviting prospect of furnishing an income for the support 
of myself and my brother, it occurred to me that, as he had 
a family to provide for, I would consult his interest and my 
own by withdrawing from the school and seeking another 
field of labor. Accordingly, in the month of March, in com- 
pany with my brother-in-law, Rev. John H. Gray, who (on 
account of some apj)rehensions of pulmonary disease) had 
been induced to visit Florida, I resolved to go to that coun- 
try and investigate the prospect that might be offered for 
the settlement of a teacher. We traveled on horseback, 
were absent five or six weeks, during which we endured 
divers hardships, met with various "perils by flood and 
field," saw a good deal of poor land, spent some money, and, 
having discovered no inviting place for future operations, 
we retraced our steps, satisfied (or rather disgusted) with 
what we had seen of Florida. It must be remarked that 
this tour of inspection occurred just fifty-eight years' ago, 
long before the land of flowers and oranges had reached 
that degree of attractiveness since attained, making it the 
winter resort of many thousands of the citizens of more 
northern latitudes and inducing many to establish ther3 
permanent and delightful homes for life. "We claim to be 
pardoned for the unlovely sketch above drawn u^Don the 
ground that our verdict was premature. 

I remained at Williugton a few weeks, and about the first 
of May I removed to Athens, Ga., and was made Principal 
of the Grammar School, now dissociated from the Univer- 
sity, and placed upon a footing of independence, finding 
myself a teacher in the very building (removed from the 
■campus, in which I had been a pupil in my boyhood. My 



208 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

residence there was of only six months' duration. The 
prospect of success was not encouraging and the income 
seemed inadequate to meet expenses. Moreover, the Athens 
of that day wore an entirely different aspect to me from 
that of four j^ears previous ; so that my time there was irksome, 
and after this brief experiment I abandoned the place and 
returned to Willington. AVith the exception of about one 
year's assistance rendered to my brother in his school in 
1834, I taught no more for a number of years. 

Having made a purchase of a very fine tract of land a. 
few miles east of AVillington, and having built a neat cottage 
upon it, I formed the determination to devote my time and 
attention for my remaining days to the business of farming. 
Accordingly, in the early spring of 1835, taking my wife 
and infant boy, with m}^ mother-in-law, Mrs. Collier (who 
had now decided, on earnest solicitations from us, to live 
with us), I entered for the first time and took possession of 
a home of my own, to which we gave the name Elmwood. 

It will doubtless add to the interest of this narrative, that 
I digress somewhat in order to record some account of a 
state of things in public affairs which was of absorbing and 
overwhelming importance to the people of the whole coun- 
try, and especially to South Carolina. The attention of the 
people was deeply attracted to the subject in 1828, during 
my college course, while residing in the State of Georgia, 
and the resulting excitement grew in its intensity until 1833. 
I allude to the political war in relation to the Tariff Act, 
which war reached its consummation in the Ordinance of 
Nullification, and was settled by the compromise of 1833. 
An act had been passed by Congress in 1816 laying a tariff 
on imports ; but as it was designed more for revenue than 
for protection, it created little, if any, opposition. In 1828, 
the dissension arose on account of the passage, by a majority 
in Congress, of an offensive tariff bill, which, it was con- 
tended by the Southern statesmen, operated injuriously to 



Public Excitement Oyeu the Tariff. 209 

the interests of the South. I remember very well the effect 
produced (not only in South Carolina, but in Georgia as 
well), by the proceedings of Congress in 1828. The tariff 
on the imported goods from England waa fixed at an amount 
so high that English cotton fabrics particularly were virtu- 
ally almost excluded. The object of this legislation was to 
force our people to buy the goods of this kind from Northern 
manufacturers. But the goods of English manufacturers 
were of a superior quality, and but for this tariff, could bo 
sold to consumers at a lower price than those of this coun- 
try. There were very few, if any, cotton factories in the 
South, and hence the Southern people must needs trade 
with the North, or buy the Enghsh goods at ruinous prices. 
After a long series of legislative acts of this kind, by the 
Congress of the United States, the patience of the Southern 
people was well-nigh exhausted, as these aggressive mea- 
sures had been in progress for many years, to the detriment 
of the agricultural interests of the people of the South. 
Every consideration connected with these interests made it 
plain that we should trade with the English, as we raised 
the cotton needed by them, and they could manufacture 
better fabrics, and sell them at reduced prices. This the 
Congressional majority, in the interest of the Northern 
manufacturers, determined if possible to prevent; hence 
the obnoxious legislation to which reference is made. The 
first demonstration of popular feeling was the adoption of 
resolutions in many parts of the South, in self-defence, to 
use no goods of Northern manufacture, but to use clothing 
spun and woven in the old fashioned way, by hand or the 
spinning wheel, and loom. The Trustees, Faculty, and stu- 
dents, and many of the visitors at the University Commence- 
ment of that year, doffed their broad-cloth, and presented 
themselves in the University Chapel clad in homespun suits 
of domestic manufacture, and great enthusiasm prevailed. 
The amount of which the Southern peoj^le felt themselves 



mo John N. Waddel, D. T>., LL. D. 

robbed was comparatively trivial, and the statesmen of the 
South laid little stress upon that. But the principle on 
"which this unjust legislation was based was the point 
against which they contended, as tending directly to the 
ultimate subversion of our liberties. That principle was 
that one section of the country should be taxed for the pro- 
tection of the products of another, while no correspondent 
benefit, but an injury, should result to the interests of the 
section taxed. The champions of the State of South Caro- 
lina, were Messrs. Calhoun and Hayne in the Senate, 
with George McDuffie, James Hamilton, and others in the 
House of Representatives. These gentlemen held that 
this legislation was unconstitutional, inasmuch as it was 
destructive of State rights. To levy a pro^^er tax on all 
the people for revenue purposes was right and unob- 
jectionable. But a tax which arbitrarily discriminated be- 
tween different sections of the Union would inevitably over- 
ride the liberties of the people, destroy the guarantees of 
the Constitution, and lead to the dissolution of the Union. 
The sentiment almost universally adopted by the peojole, 
was : "Millions for defence ; not a cent for tribute !" 
' As encroachment after encroachment continued to occur, 
a convention of the people of South Carolina waa called, and 
the Ordinance of Nullification was passed. The meaning of 
this ordinance was, that where such legislation was passed 
by Congress as was violative of the rights of the States (of 
which violation the State was clothed wdth the power to 
decide), the rightful remedy could be found in the nullifica- 
tion of the obnoxious law within the limits of the State. It 
was also held to be a peaceful remedy, and by no means im- 
plied the dissolution of the Union. 

The celebrated Andrew Jackson was then President of 
the United States, and was at the acme of his j^opularity ; 
and bearing no good will to Mr. Calhoun, he identified him- 
self with the Union party, and succeeded in having a bill 



Nullification Times. 211 

passed known as '• the Force Bill." This bill placed at his 
control all the naval and military forces of the government, 
with a view of coercing* the people of South Carohna ; but 
the State did not pause to calculate the immense odds ar- 
rayed against her, and although no other State joined her 
in the oj^position, she immediately proceeded to place her- 
self on a w'ar footing. 

I cannot forget, however, that some of her best citizens, 
a party not sufficiently numerous to succeed, opposed the 
Nullification movement very decidedly. Among them w^as 
James L. Pettigru, of Charleston, than whom the State 
claimed no nobler son. They distinguished themselves by 
the name of "Union men; " they were reproached by the 
Nullifiers with the title of " Submissionists." The logical se- 
quence of Nullification, according to its advocates, was not 
secession, but the preservation of the Union upon constitu- 
tional principles. Many of the Union men believing that 
the doctrine w^as a mistake on the part of the Nullifiers, and 
convinced that a conflict of arms w4th the general govern- 
ment was inevitable, in which event South Carolina w^ould 
be crushed, removed from the State. 

In the meantime the whole State was converted into a 
military encampment, and preparation was made to bring 
every able-bodied man in the State into the public service. 
There was no need of conscription, no draft, but all who 
went into the ranks were volunteers. Notes of preparation 
sounded from the mountains to the sea board, and the en- 
thusiasm was deep and widespread. Squads of men were 
organized everywhere, who were pledged, on a minute's 
warning from their commander, to rej^air to any designated 
spot equipped with arms, rations, clothing, and a good 
horse ! The ultimate rendevouz for the whole military force 
thus raised throughout the State was Charleston, and there 
the army was to be concentrated to meet the forces of the 
United States Government. Such was the actual condition 



212 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. I). 

of things dnring some months preceding March 4th, which 
was supposed to be the critical period when the question 
of colhsion would be definitely decided. During these ex- 
citing scenes it may be readily supposed I was not inactive 
and unmoved, but I was in full sympathy with the South. 
I was not only a Nullifier, but I belonged to a squad of 
"minute men." But as the time rolled on Congress was 
evidently becoming more disposed to settle the difficulty 
without actual collision, and a party imbued with the spirit 
of moderation was assiduously at work to modify the pre- 
vious legislation, so as to conciliate all parties and avert the 
threatening storm. The leader of this -party in Congress 
was the celebrated Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and under his 
wise conduct the Compromise Act was successfully perfected 
and passed, which brought into sufficient harmony the con- 
flicting views of all, so that the apparently "imminent 
deadly breach " was closed. This act of Congress so modi- 
fied the obnoxious tariff bill as to subject it to a process of 
gradual reduction through a series of j^ears, at the expira- 
tion of which time it should produce an adequate revenue 
with a more moderate system of protection. To be sure 
this was not the solution that was entirely satisfactory to 
the South Carolinians, still it was a concession to their de- 
mands. Although attempts have been made to cast re- 
proach and contempt upon them and upon their leaders, 
still it was patent upon the surface of this entire transac- 
tion to any unprejudiced mind that, to a very considerable 
extent, the compromise was the result of the unfaltering at- 
titude of South Carolina in opposition to the unconstitu- 
tional encroachments upon the liberties and rights of the 
States. The passage of this bill was followed by the cessa- 
tion of all military j)reparation, and the country soon sub- 
sided into its accustomed calm. Of course, then, my pledge 
as a "minute man," to be "ready at a moment's warning," 
being no longer binding, I readily obtained leave of absence 



Hon. John C. Calhoun. 213 

on a prosiDecting tour to Florida, ■v\hicli is ali-eady recorded 
on a preceding i^age of this Memoir. 

As I have mentioned Mr. Calhoun in this connection, I 
venture to give here a sketch of some of his traits, more 
characteristic of his private life. He was always a most 
welcome visitor of my father during his life at AVillington. 
Mr. Calhoun had at one time a plantation on the Savannah 
river in that part of the country, but had been for many 
years a resident of Pendleton District, at his seat, Fort 
Hill, previous to the time of which I write. His brother, 
Mr. William Calhoun, being a neighbor of my father, this 
also made him an occasional visitor in that part of the coun- 
try, with many of whose citizens he had been acquainted as 
his friends and neighbors. With respect to the public his- 
tory and grand career of Mr. Calhoun, I shall trouble the 
reader with no statements of mine, as the world knows it 
all from more adequate sources. I only wish to write of 
him from personal knowledge and recollection. 

His person was tall, and he was erect and active, yet dig- 
nified and graceful in his movements. His features were 
quite regular, his forehead neither high nor broad, yet suffi- 
ciently so to stamp it as "the dome of thought." But the 
eye that sparkled beneath his brow was so piercingly bright 
and black as to command the attention and awake the ad- 
miration of all in his presence. His voice was clear and 
distinct, and so modulated as to express the exact meaning 
of his words, and these flowed forth in a constant stream, 
apparently without premeditation, and exactly adapted to 
the rapidity of his thought. His manner and address were 
pleasing and affable. The most unpretentious and unas- 
suming man felt that he was welcome to his presence, and 
was at once at perfect ease in his society. I have heard it 
remarked that in association with him one would almost 
forget that he was i he great man that he really was. There 
was, however, nothing in his manner that was designed or 



214 John N. Waddel, D. D , LL. D. 

that tended to produce the impression that he was the supe- 
rior of these witli whom he conversed. I myself, from my 
own experience, felt, and have made the remark, that it was 
impossible to be in his company and enjoy his conversation 
for the space of half hour without learning something that 
would be of practical benefit and usefulness. 

As an illustration of his affability and the facility with 
which he could adapt liimself to any circle, and interest 
himself in common life, I mention an incident within my 
personal knowledge. I had been on a visit with my family 
to the Madison Springs, once a much frequented watering- 
place in Georgia, just above Athens. On a certain evening, 
on the arrival of the mail-coach from that place, Mr. Cal- 
houn proved to be a passenger. A large number of persons 
were at the hotel as guests, and when it was known that the 
great Senator was also a guest much interest was excited as 
a matter of course. Accordingly, after tea the guests re- 
paired to the large assembly-room, to see and hear him 
whom all delighted to honor. The late Hon. Robert A. 
Toombs, of Georgia, acted as the leader in drawing Mr. 
Calhoun into conversation, for the enjoyment, benefit and 
great dehght of the company. I was an auditor, and was 
content to listen in silence. But after some time spent in 
this agreeable way Mr. Calhoun, being acquainted with me, 
as he had met me at my father's house at Willington, rose 
from his seat, and, coming over to me, asked me to walk 
with him on the spacious veranda. There, as we prome- 
naded back and forth, he drew me into a conversation, not 
about public affairs or the political questions of the day, 
but about Willington and the old citizens whom he had long 
years previously known as his neighbors and friends. He 
seemed as deeply interested, and I doubt not was really so, in 
this simple and natural conference, as he would have been 
in almost any other subject. He referred to those people 
by their names, especially to the Huguenots and their de- 



Two Great Men Compare!.. 215 

scendants, in most familiar and friend:y recollection of their 
position and circumstances, and with all the freshness and 
interest of one whose residence there was of recent date. It 
was this haT)py capacity of adaptation of himself to all cir- 
cumstances around him, wiiich he possessed, and not the 
insincere cunning of the politician, which accounts for the 
fact that, in the South at least, John C. Calhoun was so 
beloved and admired. I have often, in my own mind, insti- 
tuted a comparison between Mr. Calhoun and Mr. McDuffie. 
They were devoted friends, and united by bonds of not only 
private affections, but by the fact that they were earnest and 
zealous members of the same great political school, and yefc 
rarely have two men been found, as distinguished as they 
were, presenting so great a diversity of traits in most re- 
spects. Both were truly great, each in his own way, but 
with striking contrasts. 

Mr. McDulfie was in his person by no means imposing. 
"With a figure not erect, but rather inclined to stoop, fea- 
tures not very regular, and eyes sunken, of a bluish-gray 
color, the nose aquiline, and the mouth indicative of a most 
decided firmness, one would not, at first view, be forcibly- 
impressed. His manner, unless in company with intimatG 
friends, was unattractive, and not remarkably social. He 
was not, as a general fact, an interesting talker, in which. 
class Mr. Calhoun was pre-eminent. Indeed, my experience 
among men leads me to the conclusion that few men are 
the equals in this respect of Mr. Calhoun. And yet, if Mr. 
McDuffie w^ere at any time drawn into a discussion of some 
important subject in which he felt deeply interested, his 
manner became animated, his eye Hashed, hia face would be 
hghted up, and so great was the transformation as to pre- 
sent him in an aspect wholly different from that which he 
exhibited in repose. Thus, whether in private conversation 
or public debate, there were occasions when it might be 
revealed to the observer, that under that reserved and un- 



21G John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

pretending" and quiet exterior, were the latent elements of 
power, eloquence, and statesmanship. In his day, and 
during- Lis public career, he was one of the powerful orators 
and political leaders in South Carolina, greatly honored, and 
almost idolized by his fellow-citizens. 

I must be indulged before leaving this subject in a re- 
miniscence which brings up a view of Mr. McDuffie's beau- 
tiful country seat, known in those da^'s by the name " Cherry 
Hill." It had always been admired for its natural attrac- 
tions, but its first proprietor, Maj. Ezekiel Noble, a retired 
citizen of Charleston, aided by the line taste of his amiable 
and accomplished wife, had added to its native beauties 
every artificial ornament that could be commanded by 
wealth. But these excellent peoj^le had long since passed 
•away, and the place had fallen into partial neglect, losing 
some of the attractions once the result of art and taste. 
Nevertheless, it still retained many of the charming features 
^of natural beauty, of which it could not be robbed, and 
which made it an admired and delightful home. The 
original dwelling, erected on the hill, consisted of two stories 
in height, and was a large square building, with ample 
verandas above and below, but it was destroj^ed by fire. A 
building of more moderate dimensions, but commodious and 
sufficiently elegant in all its appointments had been erected 
upon the same spot, and like its jDredecessor, fnrnished with 
capacious verandas, jDresenting an extended view of the sur- 
rounding country to the south, west, and east. On the 
north side the hill descended precipitously. Toward the 
•west, the view extended far over into the State of Georgia, 
"while down in the valley rolled the beautiful and majestic 
stream of the Savannah river, and the horizon beyond was 
Bmooth and even in its blue line, save only at a point where 
rose the summit of Graves' Mountain, distant it was said 
about thirty-five miles, in Columbia County, Ga. As on the 
west, so also on the east, the regular circle of the horizon 



Cherry Hill. 217 

•was interrupted by Parson's Mount, not so distant as 
the other, but sufficiently so to " lend enchantment to the 
Adew." Orchards of every variety of fine fruit flourished on 
the premises, and directly around the house bloomed a 
shrubbery and flower-garden of the rarest description. The 
place, even at the time of Mr. McDuffie's residence, was the 
admiration of the whole land, and was visited by many 
transiently passing through the neighborhood. Mr, Mc- 
Duffie purchased the place from the first proprietor, and 
this was his home for years. During the intervals of pubhc 
service, and after his permanent retirement to private Hfe, 
in feel^le health, here he received and hospitably entertained 
his friends who visited him. Here also, I think, he died. 

After this it passed into the hands of strangers unknown 
to me, and it graduallj^ fell into decay, and lost its former 
attractiveness. 

In 18G1, being on a pilgrimage to my native place, in 
company with a friend, I visited the spot, and as I recalled 
the glories of this ancient home of the past, and surveyed 
its desolation, sad indeed were the emotions to which the 
scene gave rise. I gathered two roses that were blooming 
alone — "left on the stalk, to show where the garden had 
been," fitting memento of Cherry Hill — and carried them 
with me to xnv distont western home. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Purchase of Land in Alabama and EemovaIj. — Signal Peovidential 
Inteefebence in My Behalf. 

MY time passed rather unprofitably during the year of 
our settlement in our new home. I was a small far- 
mer, not what was known as a planter, but lived on a very 
pleasant farm, and had a very hap^oy home. I enjoyed the 
work of improving the place, in reading, and visiting my 
neighbors to some extent. We enjoyed church privileges 
also, being conveniently located so as to attend my father's 
church, at "Willington, and my brother's, at Hopewell, at 
pleasure. Everything in our daily routine passed on quietly 
and prosperously. With a view to the improvement of my 
wife's health, and to add to her enjoyment and that of her 
friends, we projected a visit to Alabama. Accordingly, in 
August of the year 1835, we made a successful and unevent- 
ful journey by comfortable private conveyance to Greene 
county, and were cordially welcomed. During this visit of 
some months events of great interest and importance to me 
occurred, which more or less influenced my future. It was 
just at that period when the whole country was driving 
rapidly on to one of those crises in financial matters which 
have periodically marked our history as a people. There 
was a rage for land speculation in the West, and especially 
in the Southwest. When I left home it was with no expecta- 
tion that I could be induced to remove from South Carolina to 
Alabama. I had a fresh plantation; my home and many 
friends were in South Carolina, and I could see no j^rospect of 
improving my condition by a change of residence. Besides, 
I w^as well aware of the fact that I could make no purchase 
of land in Alabama without incurring debt, and up to this 

218 



Land Puechased in Alabama. 219 

time I had been acting upon a principle instilled into me 
by my father, to avoid debt as much as possible. Looking 
far back now to those early days, and to the mental troubles- 
consequent upon the events referred to above, I find reason 
enough to regret the fact that I yielded to the advice of 
others, however kindly given. But although I w^as made to 
suffer for some years in many respects, I have often felt a 
conviction since, that all those burdensome troubles were 
permitted to befall me, and for a time to darken my pros- 
pects, for wise purposes in the providence of God. I am 
led to this conclusion from the fact that, by reason of these 
events, my whole course of life was revolutionized, and that 
they constituted essential links in the chain of circumstances 
that led me, as I trust, to a wiser choice of pursuit. So 
true is it that "it is not in man that walketh to direct his 
steps." But I am anticipating. 

"While with my friends in Greene county, Ala., a visit to 
the county of Sumter was proposed by my friends, Messrs. 
Gray and Quarles, as an excursion merely, without any view 
of entering the land market at all. There was a fine tract 
of land in the prairie near Gainesville for sale. After view- 
ing this land, my friend. Major Quarles, conceived the idea 
that it would be a ver}' fine investment ; but as it was an ex- 
tensive tract, it would be safer to purchase only a part, and 
as he knew the prospect of speedy increase in its value was 
very bright, he suggested to me to unite with liim and each 
pm'chase a part of the land, and so take the whole body. 
The terms on which it was offered were $12.50 per acre, 
with three years' time, without cash payment in advance, 
but with interest from date. At that time I declined the 
proposal utterly, and the representations made to me by 
others, regarded as good judges, that the land was cheap 
and the terms favorable, produced no impression upon me. 

We returned from our trip of inspection without making 
any such purchase. A letter which I received from home 



220 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

produced a sudden change in my views, so that I was induced 
to entertain with favor the idea of leaving South Carohna, 
and setthng permanently in Alabama. The particulars of 
this train of thought need not be here detailed, but it wdll 
be sufficient to state that such was the excitement of my 
mind produced by the letter that I decided (very hastily as 
I now perceive), to leave South Carolina, and settle in Ala- 
bama. The next act of the ill-judged proceeding w^as the 
purchase of the Sumter land. Here began my pecuniary 
difficulties, and I record this transaction merely to serve as 
a warning to any who may l)e patient enough to read these 
lines, and who may be, like me, inexperienced in such mat- 
ters. As an explanation, and, to some extent, a palliation 
of this mistake of judgment wdiich I made, I mention two 
facts as reasons for the course pursued, in addition to the 
influence of the letter received. TJie oie was the possi- 
bility, ■which my friends regarded as a certainty, that the 
lands would so appreciate in value very shortly as to enable 
me to sell at an advance, should I not wish to settle upon it. 
The other w^as, that the sale of my Carolina lands would 
ydeld me such an amount as would pay for the present pur- 
chase. Whether these consolatory expectations were ever 
realized in my experience remains to be decided by the 
later developments of the case. What occurred then, was 
that the arrangements being all perfected, the trade was 
closed at once. 

Soon after this transaction, I returned with my wife and 
little boy, Moses, leaving her mother, Mrs. Collier, with her 
daughters. We spent the year 1836 on our Carolina place, 
without any unusual or important occurrence in our domestic 
life. It was, however, an eventful year to the country, and, 
in some of its aspects, to us. Having determined to leave 
South Carolina, my first care was to dispose of my planta- 
tion to the best advantage. I advertised it in one of the 
Charleston papers, and as a kind of disposition prevailed at 



A Remaekable PRO^^:DENCE. 221 

tlie time among' the people of the lower part of the State, to 
settle ill the more northern districts, especially in Abbe- 
ville, I very soon had an applicant. Dr. Joseph Lee, of 
Johns Island, having read my advertisement, came np on a 
prospecting tour, and on a visit to his nephew, Dr. Thomas 
Lee, who was a friend and neighbor of mine. The former, 
after a satisfactfuy examination of my land, decided to pur- 
chase, and we closed the trade at $4,750 in cash, to be paid 
on receiving the title. This, although somewhat less than 
the price at which I held it, I accepted in consideration of 
the cash payment, and promised to give possession January 
1837. The Spring being far advanced, and I not quite 
ready to remove, I remained on the place to finish and to 
gather the growing crop. It may be remembered that this 
w^as the year of the difficulties of the Government with the 
Creek Indians. I allude to this fact that I may record a 
most signal interposition of Divine Providence in my behalf. 
After disposing of nw land, it become advisable that I 
should make a preliminary visit to Alabama, in order to 
make satisfactory arrangements for the comfortable settle- 
ment of my family. For although, as already stated, I had 
purchased a tract of land there, no improvements had ever 
been made on it. Preparations for the contemplated trip 
were all made, and I was expecting to take the stage-coach 
on a certain day, the route of its line of travel leading di- 
rectly through the heart of the Creek Nation, the Indians 
being hostile. But for some cause, not now remembered, I 
was prevented from leaving on the day appointed. The 
issue of the case proved that had I been permitted to make 
the trip at that time I should have met, in all probability, a 
violent death at the hands of the savages. The coach in 
which I had expected to travel brought its ill-fated passen- 
gers unexpectedly into the midst of a formidable band of 
the Indians, and it was stopped in its progress, the driver 
seized and tied to a wheel and burned with the coach, the 



222 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

mail sacks destroyed, with their contents, and the passengers 
massacred. According to the lights then before nie, I felt 
certain that the failure in my taking passage at the time set, 
■was the kind Providence that saved my life. Thus I was 
again -reminded by this incident that I was called to con- 
sider my salvation, and should have been impressed very 
seriously. But I was still careless and thoughtless, "not 
knowing" (and I may add, wdth shame, not caring) "that 
the goodness of God was leading me to repentance." I was 
a lover of the world, and felt satisfied with the flattering 
prospects it held out to allure me. 

The Creeks continued hostile through all the summer, and 
I was induced to abandon my westward trip for the time 
being. During the ensuing autumn I accompanied my 
family, by private conveyance, to Alabama, and, leaving 
them with their friends, I returned to South Carolina to 
wdnd up my affairs and make a final removal to our new 
home. I was successful in collecting all my own dues, in- 
cluding the purchase-mone}' of my place, and having paid off 
all my own liabilities to the uttermost, bade farewell to my 
friends and left for Alabama, and reached my destination in 
January, 1837. 

With regard to my Sumter purchase, I found that the 
prospects of its being of enhanced value very soon were re- 
garded as quite as promising as ever, and as my friends 
persisted in advising me to hold it, I was easily persuaded 
to do so, rejecting a very fair offer for it. Unwise counsel 
as this proved to be, I blame myself more than any one else ' 
for my course in not accepting it. 

Before proceeding with this narrative, I must ask of any 
who may have the patience to read it, that they excuse even 
this imperfect account of my private life, as I hold it to have 
l^een an essential part of the way in which I was led ulti- 
mately to change my entire course, to revolutionize my 
Tiews of life, and to enter ujDon that career of public eftort 
ivhich has occupied my time for at least half a centui-y. 



CHAPTER X. 

FouK Years' Eesidence in Alabama, with its Consequences, and 
Anothee Eemoval. 

ON my arrival in Greene county, Ala., as I had no house 
ready as a residence, we boarded from January to No- 
vember of the year 1837. Our first-born little boy, Moses, 
-was our joy and our pride. He was a bright and noble- 
looking boy. His head a\ as large, his forehead broad and 
massive, his hair yellow and glossy, his eyes w^ere bluish 
gray. He was also a remarkably manly and (owing to his 
mother's excellent training) obedient child. "We loved him 
with a very deep and devoted tenderness. He was the com- 
panion of many a walk and ride through those years, and I 
do suppose that no little fellow ever was happier than he. 
Matters wore on thus until, in November, I had succeeded 
in the completion of our first log-cabin home sufficiently, and 
we had just moved into it when, on the 6th of November, 
my beloved wife made me the happy father of a precious 
little girl, to whom we gave the name of Mary Robertson, in 
honor of her dear grandmother. Of these children, more 
remains to be recorded as the history of my life progresses, 
and events of deep and solemn importance to me and my 
family transpired. 

Not long after my settlement in Alabama the distant mut- 
terings of the approaching storm in the commercial world 
were heard, indicating the crisis, and land speculation 
ceased and land-buyers disappeared. I had no further 
ofiers for my Sumter lands. As none of my friends resided 
in Sumter county, I had no inducement to remove to that 
point, and I determined to place my land on the market, as 

223 



224 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

I "was still hopeful of disposing of it, and found a home in 
Greene county, where our friends were. Within a few years, 
having had an accession to our slave property from South 
Carolina, I became engaged in cotton-planting, to a moderate 
extent, for the four succeeding years. I was never a suc- 
cess as a planter, and I dismiss this subject by stating that 
unfavorable seasons, a hail-storm, and a summer of exten- 
sive prevalence of malarial fever interfered so disastrously 
with our operations, that we were decided to make a change 
of location at the earliest favorable opportunity that might 
be presented. The farm of my brother-in-law, Mr. (after- 
wards Doctor) Gray, adjoined mine, and the two together 
constituted a large and desirable tract of farming land. 
Just at this time a Mississippi planter made us a proposition 
to exchange a place of his in that State for ours, which we 
accepted, for reasons that we considered sufficient, and ulti- 
mately removed to Jasper county. Miss. Before effecting 
this removal, and, indeed, before the exchange just men- 
tioned had occurred, I should have recorded the most im- 
portant event of all my whole life, inasmuch as it was the 
conviction and conversion of my soul, which occurred during 
these four years spent in Alabama, in 1838. As I now, after 
the lapse of fifty years, look back to that time of my life, I 
recall that I was very easy in my mind, not having been 
troubled with the diihculties that afterwards came upon me, 
and I had made a considerable payment on my Sumter 
lands, and was not at all pressed by creditors. I was happy 
in all my domestic relations, and in social intercourse with 
friends around me. Still I know that I did not properly 
appreciate my blessings, nor did I then cultivate as I should 
have done a sense of my obhgation to God, as dependent 
upon Him for all these blessings. But the time was ap- 
proaching when I was brought to reahze my thoughtless in- 
gratitude. I think it was in the month of October of this 
year that the Synod of Alabama held a meeting in the old 



Conviction and Conversion. 225 

town of Mesopotamia, near our home. During its sessions 
quite a religious interest was awakened in the congregation 
and community. Kev. Daniel Baker was present, and 
preached with his usual zeal and earnestness. I attended 
the meetings with my family until Sabbath afternoon, when 
I returned home, leaving my wife with the little ones, as she 
seemed interested in the meeting. I was not moved at all 
by the excitement up to that time, but occupied myself in 
the matters of farming interest during the Monday follow- 
ing. Dr. Gray came home that evening, and remarked 
cheerfully that " he had come down to take me to the meet- 
ing next day ; that my wife and Mrs. Quarles had professed 
a hope, and that I must go and attend also." I was not 
particularly moved by all this, and received his proposal 
coolly and declined attending, upon the ground that I appre- 
hended there was probably too much excitement in such 
meetings. He said nothing in opposition to my views, and 
quietly retired. I do not doubt that his course was wisely 
directed by the God of all grace. Had he pressed me 
further, it is probable that, from mere pride of opinion, I 
should have adhered only more firmly to my purpose. As it 
was, he had no sooner left me than I was struck with a con- 
■viction of my wicked folly in receiving his proposal mth such 
positive rejection. Simple as this incident may appear, it 
was this w^hich touched my hardened and locked-up heart,. 
so that I was led to reflect upon my whole life and conduct 
as they appeared in the sight of God. Then it also occurred 
to me with power that I was about to be deserted by all my 
friends, especially by my beloved vdie, who was now re- 
joicing in hope, while I was a self-rejected outcast. I man- 
aged to pass that night and the next day, though not very 
peacefully in my mind, in daily duties and engagements of 
various kinds ; but when night came, I passed a very rest- 
less time, tossing and turning on my bed until the dawn of 
day. I arose very early, and repaired at once to Dr. Gray's 
15 



226 John N. \\^addel, D. T>., LL. T>. 

place, and after stating unreservedly to him the facts of my 
case as here recorded, I proposed to go up to the meeting 
with him when he should return. My mortification may be 
readily understood when he informed me that the meeting 
had closed. This deepened my conviction of the sinfulness 
of my conduct, and I felt justly punished for my wilful per- 
verseness. As some comfort to me, he proposed that I 
should accompany him to a meeting which he was to attend, 
with Dr. Baker, very soon, in Tuskaloosa, to which I gladly 
assented. We accordingly went uj) together and attended a 
communion meeting with Dr. Baker's church . for several 
days, and before I returned I found what, I trust, was a 
good hope, through grace, of an interest in Christ. I wish 
to record here that the human agency by which I was 
brought to see my way clear through my struggles on this 
occasion was not so much the public preaching I attended in 
the church as the private instruction I received from Dr. 
Gray and his exposition of our Bible readings. I had a 
very erroneous conception of what constituted a true Chris- 
tian character. I had, in my blindness and ignorance of the 
experience of a child of God, formed the idea that he must 
be perfect, and that no one who had any sin within or about 
him had reason to believe he was a Christian. Since, there- 
fore, I now had been led to see the native and habitual de- 
pravity of my own heart more clearly and deeply than ever 
before, I dared not consider myself a Christian so long as 
this state of the case continued. Dr. Gray's exposition of 
the seventh chapter of Eomans, which we read and studied 
together, convinced me that I was in error, and that I was 
making personal righteousness a substitute for Christ. I 
was led to see that the true test of Christian character was 
the faith one must exercise in the perfect work of Jesus 
Christ, and that the effect of that faith was manifested, not 
so much in a complete deliver ance from all the remains of 
indweUing sin, as in the ability it imparted to man to main- 



Conversion. 227 

tain a ceaseless warfare against sin in all its forms. In this 
connection I add that I felt great comfort from an incident 
occurring during my stay in Tuskaloosa. A copy of the 
W^atcUman of the South, edited in Hichmoud, Va., at that 
time by Dr. Plumer, fell into my hands, and I was attracted 
by a letter of the Eev. Drmy Lacy, one of the fathers of the 
Presbyterian Church in Virginia of the last century. It was 
to this effect : 

*' When I read the lives of the saints as recorded I ven- 
ture to entertain some hope that I am a child of God ; but 
when I look into my own heart and see what a nest of 
vipers, what a cage of unclean birds it is, I am almost re- 
duced to despau\ But thanks to God ! Christ can cast 
them all out!" 

I was conscious at once of two reflections : First, If such 
an eminent saint of God was so beset with sin, my theory 
about perfection was untrue, and hence it could not be main- 
tained that the remnants of sin lingering within the heart 
was proof that one was not a Christian. Second, I saw the 
place occupied by Christ in the plan of salvation : " Thanks 
be to God! who giveth us the victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ ! " Henceforth I feel that I have had clear 
views of the divine scheme of redemption and of my own in- 
terest in Christ, though often obscured by doubts. I have 
felt that I can appropriate the language of the man boru 
blind, whom Christ restored to sight: "One thing I know, 
that whereas I iras blind, tiow I see." As I read this letter, 
which appeared to conflrm Paul's teachings in the seventh 
chapter of Eomans, I was conscious that a ray of light passed 
into my mind and disjoersed the darkness, and I settled 
down in a calm and pleasing hope that God had, for Christ's 
sake, pardoned all my sins. Such a change came over my 
entire being that all my faculties, affections, and motives 
were renovated ; " old things passed away, and all things 
became new." It was with new eyes that I now regarded 



228 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

all things in this world in their relations to the future. It 
became to me a question of most solemn interest and most 
profound importance, " What wilt thou have me to do ? " 

On the evening of my arrival at home I began the duty of 
family worship, though not then a member of the church, 
and upon the altar then erected, the morning and evening 
incense has been offered even to the present time. While it 
was still true that sin was dwelling within, and " mixed with 
all I did," yet it was " a grief and burden " to me, and kept 
me humble in the sight of God. 

The year 1839 found us all with our beloved circle still 
unbroken. In April quite a gathering of ministers occurred 
in Mesopotamia, probably a called meeting of the Presby- 
tery. Rev. John Breckinridge was present, acting as agent 
of the Board of Foreign Missions, and was preaching with 
great power and unction for several days. At that time my 
wife and I were received into the church, and our chil- 
dren, with others, were baptized by Dr. Breckinridge. 
I had been thinking seriously, but in a rather undecided 
way, upon the subject of my duty in reference to the minis- 
try, and yet I think now that, had I been left to myself, I 
might have been led to abandon entirely the idea of enter- 
ing upon the great work of preaching the gospel. But I 
was not thus left in this state of mind. It pleased God, 
whose hand I devoutly recognize in all my history, not to 
leave me thus at ease in Zion ; for just as I was settHng 
down in this way He laid the heavy hand of His affliction 
upon me, and " What doest thou here ? " was the question 
that seemed to fall upon my startled soul. 

About the first of May, 1839, our darling boy, our first- 
born, little Moses, was violently attacked with dysentery, 
and, notwithstanding all human efforts of the most skillful 
physicians and friends, he closed his eyes in death after a 
brief and painful illness. I need not say how fervently we 
besought the Lord to spare him to us, if possible. But it 



The Fiest Bereavement. 229 

•was not the will of the all-wise Father that our prayers 
should be answered in that way. He passed away in his 
beauty and in his brightness, aged four years and three 
months. It is not in the power of language to convey to the 
inexperienced any conception of the shadow of deep gloom 
that rested upon our little circle when this one of the lights 
of our dweUing faded into the darkness of death. The 
spring-time sun shone as brightly as ever to others ; the 
forest put forth its green rol)es of foliage as beautifully as 
ever; the birds warbled their melodies as usual; the rain 
and the dews came and refreshed the earth ; the cool foun- 
tains still poured forth their streams for the thirsty ; and 
the affairs of the great toiling, rushmg, and ambitious world 
moved on as they were wont to do ; but all was sad to ns, 
inexpressibly sad ! There was a dimness in the sunlight ; 
the woods wore a sad look ; the song of the birds was mourn- 
ful, and all nature seemed to wear a gloomy aspect ; and 
while the light of our dwelling was not wholly extinguished, 
there came over us all an unutterable sense of loneliness, 
from which we did not recover for weary months ; for we 
had, all of us, unconsciously suffered the little fellow to be- 
come so intimately entwined in our affections that it seemed 
as though our hearts must break when he died. I have felt 
the pangs of deepest sorrow many times since, but let it be 
noted that this was our fii'st-born who was taken, and then 
it may be understood that the wound must of necessity have 
been one of peculiar intensity. The pressure of debt was 
now beginning to be felt, in addition to this affliction, and 
although in possession of sufficient property to meet my ob- 
ligations thus pressing, it was not desirable to sacrifice it, 
and it remained as a trouble to us for some years, until, in 
the good providence of God, we were enabled to relieve our- 
selves and to feel free once more. But allusion is made to 
these things only to trace the dealings of God's providence 
in weaning me away from that world which had so attracted 



230 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

my interest, and, by this intermingling of sorrow and dis- 
appointment, to turn my thoughts and hopes to a more en- 
during scene of action, and one that would not only contri- 
bute to make me happier, but introduce me to a higher 
sphere of effort, leading to permanent usefulness to my fel- 
low-men. During the summer I had made up my mind 
fully to enter the gospel ministry, after prayerful delibera- 
tion and consultation with Christian friends, in whose judg- 
ment and exj)erience I reposed full confidence. In passing, 
it was a source of gratification to me that this fact, commu- 
nicated to my aged father, would bring pleasure to him in 
his affiiction, as I knew that long before this time he had 
cherished the wish and prayed that I might be called to the 
ministry, but for years past had given up all such expecta- 
tions. 

It was in the month of October of this year (1839) that I 
attended a meeting of the Presbytery of Tuskaloosa in Liv- 
ingston, Ala., and placed myself under its care as a candi- 
date for the ministry. At this meeting Rev. A. A. Porter 
•was also received as a candidate with myself. He was after- 
wards a prominent minister of the Southern church, and 
editor, for some years, of the Southern Presbyterian, in Co- 
lumbia, S. C. Dr. Baker, who was then a member of Pres- 
bytery, was enthusiastic in the expression of his gratification 
on the reception of Mr. Porter, saying : " Yes, Moderator,, 
and a hundred more just such." I was directed to com- 
mence my studies at once. My literary course, as I remem- 
ber, was sustained, and I was required to prep-are certain 
parts of trial for futr.re examination. The parts assigned 
me on which to prepare were: First, a Latin exegesis on 
some theologicrJ question; second, a critical exercise on 1 
Tim. iii. 16, and a lecture on the fifteenth Psalm, and a 
popular sermon on 2 Cor. v. 21. All these, except the last, 
were prepared, submitted, and sustained at successive meet- 
ings of the Presbytery of Tuskaloosa while I resided in Ala- 



Studying for the Ministry. 231 

bama. The remaining months of the jear found me busily- 
engaged in private study under the general instruction and 
guidance of Eev. Dr. Gray, and at the close of the year I 
was considerably advanced in my preparations. During a 
portion of this time I was associated in study, as a fellow- 
student, with that devoted missionary to the Indians, Eev^ 
Eobert Loughridge. I was never an attendant upon the. 
instructions of any of our excellent theological seminaries, as. 
I really felt that, as I was a man of family, I had amply suffi- 
cient reason for adopting the course of private study. I re- 
mained a citizen of Alabama during the year 1840, and at- 
tended the spring meeting of the Presbyteiy, but I am not 
certain that I attended the meeting in the fall. At all 
events, I had presented, as before recorded, all my parts of 
trial, except the popular sermon, and they were all sustained. 
Our third child, Elizabeth Woodson Pleasants, was born 
in 1840, and during this summer the exchange of our places 
for Mississippi lands, mentioned already, took place. We 
made all the necessary arrangements, exchanged titles, gave 
possession, and effected our removal to Jasper county, Miss. 



CHAPTER XL 

A Visit to South Cakolina, and Eemoval of Family to Mississippi. — 
Business Settlements in Mobile, and an Interesting Incident 
There. — New Home. 

SOME particulars preliminary to my own departure must 
be recorded just here. I was recalled to South Carolina 
•on business connected with the final settlement of my fa- 
ther's estate. Leaving the entire matter of the removal to 
Mississippi in Dr. Gray's hands, all of w4iich he superin- 
tended and successfully accomplished, I returned to South 
Carolina. I found matters easily and j^leasantly settled, 
and after no long delay there, I came back to Alabama. I 
of course found that everybody belonging to both families 
had gone to Mississippi, and strange faces now met me, as 
ihe place was in possession of new^ owners. The scene was 
sufficiently dreary by the contrast, and as soon as I could 
with convenience, I took boat for Mobile, our market town. 
Both my own and Dr. Gray's cotton crops had already gone 
down to the city, and the agreement made before we had 
separated was that w^e should meet in Mobile. He was to 
go down from the new home in Mississippi and I from 
Greene county to make sale of cotton and purchase family 
supplies. On my arrival in the city I found that, for some 
reason, he had been delayed, and was not there. I could 
not leave Mobile without meeting him, as we were to agree 
upon some matters there to be settled, and I was to return 
to Eutaw previous to my final departure for Mississippi, so 
I remained in Mobile about a. week, awaiting his arrival. 
Owing to some unexpected complications in my business 
Tivhich I found in the city on my arrival, I felt the need of 

232 



Providential Leadings. 233 

counsel, and the time passed slowly, and the week was one 
of extreme loneliness and discomfort. While thus detained, 
an incident of apparently an unimportant nature occurred, 
which seemed to have a bearing upon my future, and which 
really shed a ray of comfort upon my cheerless surround- 
ings. On one of those lonely days of waiting I was walking 
the street, and passing a reading-room, I stepped in to read 
the news of the day and to while away the heavy hom-s. In a 
Mississippi paper, that first attracted my attention by its 
name, I found the joui'nal of the proceedings of the State 
Legislature, then in session. Inasmuch as I should be a 
citizen of that State, the paper very naturally claimed my 
special attention and interest. So I read on and found that 
it contained the action of the Legislature in locating the 
State University at Oxford, in the northern part of Missis- 
sippi. I have frequently referred to this incident, in con- 
versation with friends, as one that was undoubtedly con- 
nected wdth my future hfe, and in this way : I believe that 
my entering that reading-room on that occasion was under 
divme direction, and that my heavenly Father designed it 
mercifully as a means of temporary comfort to me under the 
gloomy shadows that were then resting upon me. It is 
quite probable, I think, that many, perhaps a majority of 
people, would pronounce it "a mere accident'' But I do 
not so interpret it. I am sure that the immediate effect 
upon me was to arouse my mind to tlie prosj^ect of future 
usefulness in a sphere better adapted to my training and 
habits. Let me recall the fact that when my father de- 
cided so positively that he designed me for a teacher I ac- 
cepted the decision with reluctance, and it was with a feel- 
ing somewhat akin to aversion that I regarded that calling, 
yet, after entering upon it, and laboring in it for several 
years, I became convinced that it w^as a work in Avhich I 
could be useful, and I began to enjoy it. How I was led to 
abandon it for ano1?her occupation has already been related. 



234 John N. Waddel, D. D, LL. D. 

Now, just there, in that reading-room in Mobile, -while see- 
ing only the announcement of the location of a school of 
learning, of which I not only had never heard, but of which 
I had never thought, I was conscious of the admission into 
my mind of the possibility that I might in some future day 
be connected with that institution. I admit that the thought, 
improbable as it may seem, and the realization of which was 
so doubtful, did convey to me at that time no inconsiderable 
degree of comfort. Still I knew full well that there lay out 
before me a long and dreary way to be traversed before I 
could emerge into light. Let me dismiss this incident now 
by remarking that, although it j)assed into a state of sus- 
pension in my mind, it was never totally lost, but as years 
passed on in my career, it was occasionally revived by occur- 
rences that successively took place, and that, in their combined 
influence, matured the first suggestion into full realization. 

But to return. At length Dr. Gray arrived, and after 
consulting with him and others as to the best method of 
proceeding, I returned to the neighborhood of my former 
home, and having made satisfactory arrangements, after 
another trip to Mobile and back, I bade a final adieu to 
Alabama, and took my departure alone on horseback for 
Mississipj)i. After a ride of more than one hundred miles, 
and suffering no little bodily pain from exposure and men- 
tal discomfort, I was permitted, " by the good hand of my 
God upon me," once more to embrace my beloved famil^^ 
and, surrounded by all I held dear, I felt, for the lime, f.-ee 
and independent of earthly trouble. 

I arrived in Jasper county, my future place of residence, 
on March 7, 1841, and after resting and looking about for a 
time, I employed myself in superintending matters of the 
farm and getting things in working order. The large body 
of lands for which we had exchanged our Alabama posses- 
sions, consisting of 2,550 acres, we found to be about what 
we had been led to expect. It was not so convenient to 



New Home in ^Iississippi. 235- 

market, but it was, much of it, quite fertile, and a very 
healthful location, which latter point was a special recom- 
mendation to us, after our experience in Alabama of exces- 
sive sickness in the preceding season. Our first care was to 
make an equitable division of the tract into two plantations, 
which was done to the entire satisfaction of all parties. As 
on the portion of the j^lace which fell to me there was no 
suitable dwelling, I proceeded to build, and in due time fin- 
ished a new and commodious house, which, though made of 
hewn logs, furnished us a very comfortable home dur- 
ing seven jeai's and a half. It was a ]3lain structure, but 
neat, and built in the style that was fashionable in the 
neighborhood. It is part of my history that will be imj^or- 
tant, in its connections with my future and subsequent life, 
that I endeavor to give the reader a concise description of 
that j)art of the country into which we had removed. None 
of us had ever taken up our abode in such a region as we 
found in the northwestern part of Jasper county, Miss. It 
was one of the eastern counties of the State, and at the time 
of our settlement it was distant from the State capital at 
least sixty miles. The nearest railway then in existence was 
the Vicksburg and Jackson road, and our intercourse, social 
and connnercial, with that part of the country was kept up 
by private conveyance altogether over wretched roads, 
through swamps, and over hills. But the immediate region 
around us on our first arrival was in an extremely rude and 
uncivilized condition. For the first two years of our resi- 
dence there we were surrounded by Indians of the Choctaw 
tribe, who had not then been removed by the Government 
to their western destination. They were entirely harmless 
and friendly, and they were hired by the planters and farm- 
ers to cultivate and gather crops for simple wages, either of 
money or provisions. They were miserably poor and squalid 
in their appearance, dress, and manners. So, also, while we 
hgid around us some exceedingly pleasant neighbors, yet 



236 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

there were still residing there some, perhaps a good ma,ny, 
who were low and degraded in all their instincts and habits. 
Our ^predecessor in the place we now owned, a man of 
wealth, and a Presbyterian by profession, had erected a 
very ^^lain house of worship in the immediate neighborhood, 
which was used by the Methodists as a preaching station, 
as they are found the pioneers of Christian civilization 
almost ubiquitous. But very little respect was manifested 
by the inhabitants for religious institutions, especially the 
Sabbath. Hunting cattle and deer was the chief enjoyment 
of this class of the inhabitants, and visiting on business and 
pleasure were their chief occupations. But so much the 
greater need for work was the thought that pressed upon us 
all in our new outlook upon the surroundings. So, with a 
view to the spiritual needs of those families of the place, in- 
cluding our own, who earnestly desired the privileges of the 
church and the Sabbath, and also the hope of gathering the 
careless, thoughtless, and heathen around us to the benefits 
of the church ordinances. Dr. Gray commenced preaching 
in the house already mentioned. We had a small congrega- 
tion at first, but we soon succeeded in establishing a pro- 
mising Sabbath-school, consisting of his family and mine 
and those of the neighborhood who were already trained 
elsewhere. During the summer and fall quite an accession 
to our population was made by the immigration of respect- 
able citizens, and a very good church was organized, with 
two elders, of which I was one, and the name chosen for the 
church was Montrose. 



CHAPTEK XII. 

Pkosecutiox of Ministerial Studies.— Liceksl-re by Presbytery op 
IVlississippi. — Places of my First Years of Preaching. 

OUR removal from the bounds of the Presbyteiy of Tuska- 
loosa made it necessary to connect ourselves with the 
Presbytery of Mississippi, into whose bounds we had re- 
moved. I kept up my theological studies as faithfull}^ as 
was possible in private, my trials having all been passed and 
approved, save the popular sermon. Having obtained let- 
ters of dismission, we left home in September, and rode 
horseback across the country one hundred and twenty miles,, 
to Ebenezer church, in Jefferson county, where the Presby- 
tery of Mississippi held its fall meeting. The venerable 
Rev. William Montgomery was the minister in charge of 
that church at the time. He has long since gone to restj 
and the church has been dissolved. Rev. Jeremiah Cham- 
berlain, T>. D., presided as Moderator of Presbytery at this 
meeting. He was then the honored and beloved President 
of Oakland College, afterwards brutally murdered. After 
my reception and examination on some final preHminary 
points, I preached my "popular sermon" on 2 Cor. v. 21, 
the subject being " The Doctrine of Substitution." I was 
then licensed (the Moderator presiding) as a probationer to 
preach the gospel. My first attempt in this solemn office 
was made in the church at home, Montrose, on the Sabbath 
succeeding my licensure, a church recently organized, where 
Dr. Gray preached regularly, save when absent on mission- 
ary work. My text was the sixth verse of the fifty-fifth 
chapter of Isaiah, and my sermon was delivered from notes. 
I found no scarcity of fields for work, although there were 

237 



238 John N. Waddel, D. D , LL. D. 

nu organized clmrclies iu that destitute country immediately 
around us. The first place to which I was invited to preach 
was the town of Ealeigh, in the adjoining county of Smith, 
near this place, iu the country. I found several Presbyte- 
rians — the Curries and Campbells, one of the latter having 
heen an elder in the State of his former residence. I occu- 
pied the court-house as a preaching place for the town and 
country peoj^le ; but the prospect of the organization of a 
church being by no means encouraging, and the congrega- 
tions continuing small, after a brief trial I abandoned the 
field. Years passed after that before there was any change 
in that place, but I find on the minutes of the Central Mis- 
sissippi Presbytery the name of a vacant church, Raleigh ; 
so I suppose there is such a church in existence in a feeble 
condition. 

A.bout this time I began preaching at a j)lace in Newton 
county, distant about twelve miles north of my home. Here 
also were found Presbyterians, the Thompsons and McFar- 
lands, who had formerly resided in an older settlement 
where there was a Presbyterian church. Two efficient 
elders were made from this material, and here we were suc- 
cessful in collecting a sufficient number to enable Dr. Gray 
to organize a very good church, to which we gave the name 
Mount Moriah. 

It should have been stated that the churches in that re- 
gion, soon after our settlement, had all been transferred to 
the jurisdiction of the Presbytery of Tombeckbee. This 
church is still in existence, after the lapse of more than 
forty years, but is reported vacant. 

After leaving Ealeigh, my first field, I was invited to a 
place some twenty five miles west of my home, on the road 
to Jackson, in Smith county, and here we found promise of 
favorable results, and a church was organized there, wdth 
two elders, Col. Samuel Lemly, late of Sahsbury, N. C, and 
Mr. WilHam Broadfoot, of Fayetteville, N. C. To this church 



First Preaching Places. 239 

Tve gave the name Mount Hermon. The material of which 
it was composed consisted partly of Presbyterians and partly 
of Lutherans, who, being deprived of an organization of 
their own, united with our people. This union continued as 
long as I ministered to them. But in process of time a 
Lutheran minister came into the neighborhood, and the 
Lutherans rallied to their old standard, aud a church was 
organized of that denomination. This circumstance, com- 
hined with a diminution of numbers by death and removal, 
resulted in the dissolution of the church ; and my informa- 
tion leads me to think that the few remaining members of 
the church were received into another church, called Tren- 
ton, not far from the old location. Among the churches of 
the Presbytery of Central Mississippi the name Mt. Hermon 
appears ; it, however, is not the same, as its location seems 
to be in Madison county. For the years during which I 
preached there I greatly enjoyed the association with that 
warm-hearted people, although my service to them required 
of me a trip of fifty miles twice in each month to and fro, 
and I have always felt thankful that I had reason to believe 
that into the Zion of the Saviour " this man and that man 
were born there." Thus I spent the first 3'ear of my minis- 
try, and the fruits of my humble labors in that sphere of 
efibrt, while unknow^n now, will be found recorded in the 
*'Book of Remembrance " in that day when the Lord shall 
*' number His jewels." 

It is needful now to collect some items of this narrative 
of a somewhat different nature, but which would perhaps 
have been out of place if recorded at an earher period. Up 
to this point matters more private and j)ersonal have occu- 
pied my thoughts, but they were not without a material in- 
fluence upon those events which will be found, in their com- 
bination, to constitute the stor^- of the most important 3'ears 
of a life now protracted bej^ond human allotment. My ar- 
rangements for preaching had all been made satisfactorilj', 



240 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

and I had all my Sabbaths occupied, and felt happy in my 
humble sx3here to be employed, with some hopeful promise 
of usefulness, instead of living in comparative idleness. Yet 
I felt that I was under obligations to combine with my farm- 
ing operations some other occupation, so as to meet a rem- 
nant of unsettled claims still resting upon me, and to add 
something to my labors in useful work. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

ESTABLISHMEKT AND OrCxANIZATION OP ]MoNTKOSE AcADEMY. — ItS PkO- 
GEESS AND INFLUENCE. — SuPPLY OP EeLIGIOUS DESTITUTIONS. 

Difficulties. 

I HAD kept in view, as one of the objects of our removal 
to IMississippi, the entei'iorise of estabhshing an indepen- 
dent Academy, or High School for boys and young men. 
As I was "unknown to fame," and the location was appar- 
ently as unfavorable for such an institution as could be weR 
conceived, the first step toward such an object was obviously 
to make efforts for the pubhcation of the existence of the 
school. Preliminary arrangements were in progress for 
this xDurpose during the first year of our residence there, hy 
selecting a spot for the location, and advertising for patro- 
nage from abroad, as success in such an undertaking could 
not be expected from the immediate neighborhood. All 
things having been thus made ready, in the month of Jan- 
uary, or thereabouts, I began operations with only nine pu- 
pils. 

It was a singular school in many respects. It was singu- 
lar in its location, in the wild woods, far from the centres of in« 
telligencG and refinement. Of elements to build upon, it 
may be said to have been utterly destitute. It was with- 
out a board of trustees, or a dollar of endowment, or any 
extensive apparatus, or library rich in the treasures of 
learning, or imposing brick structures for its future opera- 
tioDs. But there was only the determination in the heart 
of one man, that by God's blessing a Christian institution 
should be i:>lanted side by side with the church, where the 
rising youth of the land should be trained for earthly use- 

241 



242 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

fulness and for the kingdom of heaven. These motives, 
with others, stimulated my efforts in this enterprise, and I 
trust I may add without boastfulness, that in the subse- 
quent history of the school these expectations were in some 
degree realized. Let me particularize a little. The school 
was opened in a log building, which was used also for preach- 
ing purposes, and located on a gentle eminence, on the high- 
way of travel, distant two miles from my residence, in the 
midst of an extensive pine forest. At the foot of the slight 
hill on which the building stood, and sufficiently near it, 
gushed forth a perennial spring of clear, chalybeate water. 
The house was sufficiently large to accommodate a good 
audience on the Sabbath, and was ample for all school pur- 
poses at first. But as the patronage of the school was 
steadily increasing, a very large log-house was erected close 
to this first building, and a second room was also erected on 
the other side of the larger house. This large house was 
designed for the accommodation of a congregation on the 
Sabbath, and in it the students assembled as a chapel for 
morning and evening prayer. This arrangement continued 
until the school had acquired such reputation as not only 
induced parents from abroad to send their children for in- 
struction, but others made settlements for the benefit of 
•education. In process of time we were so encouraged by 
the prosperity of the school and the neighborhood as to 
erect, by subscription, an excellent two-story frame build- 
ing, to serve as a church and as an assembly hall for Com- 
mencement exercises. The want of funds caused a suspen- 
sion of work on the building, after it had been covered and 
weather-boarded, but it was afterwards comj^leted by my 
successor, who settled at Montrose, and endeavored, unsuc- 
cessfulty, to revive the school. During the period of my 
residence there the school prospered, and drew its patronage 
from western Alabama, eastern Mississippi ; from Meridian, 
Brandon, Jackson, and Vicksburg. The average attend- 



Montrose Academy. 243 

ance, as I now remember, was seventy-five, the majority 
from abroad. The course of study covered all the English 
branches, together with the Classics and Mathematics, in- 
cluding Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Mensuration, 
Navigation, and Sui-veying, to the extent of the requisites 
for admission into the Junior Class in our Colleges and Uni- 
versities. I also induced the more advanced students to 
build little study-houses on the adjacent campus around the 
main building. Besides the course of study above outlined, 
a large element of Christian instruction was infused into the 
course. Every student was entered into a Bible Class, and 
required to recite on Sabbath in the church, and to attend 
preaching also. The school was daily opened and closed 
with prayer, and attendance upon this exercise was compul- 
sory. Frequent lectures were delivered to the student-body 
assembled on these occasions, in which I endeavored to pre- 
sent before their minds the rational expectation of their 
friends in regard to their future achievement of a noble 
life. I often quoted to them the words of Arnold of Rugby, 
that it was not " necessary that the school should consist of 
thirty, fifty, or one hundred students, but that it should be 
composed of Christian gentlemen." It is true, no doubt, 
that of the hundreds of students who from time to time 
came to that school ignorant and vicious, a proportion may 
have left having received little benefit ; yet I am very thank- 
ful to be able to say, that many who came in comparative 
ignorance and with unsettled morals, left infinitely benefited. 
Students were there prepared for Oakland College and for 
the University of Mississippi, who were graduated with dis- 
tinction. Others became ministers of the gospel, settling 
in Louisiana and Texas, and all were honored and beloved 
members of their respective Presbyteries. It is not too 
much, moreover, to claim, as a very important collateral 
benefit resulting from the establishment of Montrose Acad- 
emy, that its success taught the people of the region around 



244 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

just what could be accomplished by persistent individual 
effort and enterprise. This was the first academy of the 
kind ever organized in Eastern Mississippi, and after a few 
years similar schools sprang into existence all over that 
country. Our annual exhibitions and examinations were 
attended by immense crowds, coming not only from the im- 
mediate vicinity, but from distant parts of the State. On 
these occasions distinguished gentlemen from abroad came, 
on invitation, and delivered annually eloquent addresses, 
and the school reached a very high reputation throughout 
the land. 

To illustrate the animus of this school two incidents may 
be related. While in its most flourishing state, a meeting of 
the Presbytery of Tombeckbee was held at Montrose church, 
and a gracious outpouring of the Spirit followed the exer- 
cises. Deep impressions were made upon the students, and 
there were quite a number who made profession of religion. 
Of this nu'nber I recall one who, although of a Baptist 
family, was desirous of joining the Presb^^terian Church. 
I assured him that there could be but one objection to his 
proposal, viz. : that it might not be agreeable to his parents, 
and advised him to consult them, and take the course they 
might suggest. This he did, and as they preferred that 
he should become a member of the same church with them- 
selves, it was settled agreeably. These parents w^ere par- 
ticularly gratified a.t the coarse pursued, and they proved to 
be very warm friends of the school. 

The other incident was as follows: The only objection 
ever made to the regulation that every student must study 
the Bible, proceeded from a gentleman of Alabama, who 
made it a condition of his patronage, that his son should be 
excused from this rule. On my declining to accede to his 
proposal he w^ithdi'ew his son. My corps of assistant in- 
structors in this school were, at various times, Mr. Joseph 
Denison, Mr. Henry Sturges, and Mr. J. Cowart. The first 



Religious Influence. 245 

of these g-entlemen was a Nova Scotian, I think, a most ex- 
cellent teacher in the English department ; the second was 
a graduate of Princeton College; the third was a graduate 
of Oakland. I am unable to give the subsequent history of 
any one of them. It will be admitted that the number of 
teachers was quite sufficient to meet the duties required, 
without overburdening our strength, and to avoid neglect or 
injustice to the classes by attempting to instruct too many 
at once. In a word, we endeavored to do our work faith- 
fully and conscientiously. 

Within two years after our settlement at this place. Dr. 
Oray received a call from the church at Vicksburg, and re- 
moved to that city in 1843. This induced a change in my 
movements, so far as to divide m}^ preaching labors between 
Montrose and Mt. Moriah churches, giving to each two Sab- 
baths in the month, and this arrangement continued in 
force for the remaining period of my residence there. Yet 
such was the great destitution of religious privileges 
throughout that entire region, as to require my services fre- 
quently in ^dsiting vacant churches, and preaching as much 
as my engagements would admit. For a part of this time, 
two young brethren, Messrs. Gilchrist, of the Northwest, 
and Anderson, of South Carolina, were engaged to supply 
those vacancies, but they did not remain very long, as there 
was little to encourage them. Thus my labors in those 
years, both in the pulpit and in the school-room, were not 
scant nor light, left alone as to human aid. I led a life of 
toil, and was content to yield myself to the inevitable priva- 
tions of this condition of things, mingled as it was with 
many blessings. Yet I have reason to doubt whether I have 
ever, in later years, and in more eligible and elevated posi- 
tions, been instrumental in the hands of God of accomplish- 
ing more for the benefit of my f ellowmen than in that land 
of destitution. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

MOKK SOEEOW. — InCOKPOKATION OP THE BoAED OF TeUSTEES OF THE 

Univeesity of the State. — Pkoceedings of the Boaed. — Coming 
Events Foeeshadowed. 

MATTERS wore on in this way without essential modifi- 
cation until the year 1848, which closed my term of 
public service in the eastern part of Mississippi. I recur, 
however, to the period intervening between 1843 and 1848, 
to relate events which occurred at intervals during the pass- 
ing of those five years. 

Our little circle had been added to by the arrival, on Sep- 
tember 28, 1842, of a beautiful little boy, to whom his 
mother gave the name John Newton. It pleased our 
heavenly Father to permit us the enjoj^ment of his infant 
life for four short years, when He took him to Himself, and 
so again, after the lapse of seven years of exemption, our 
home was shrouded in deep gloom. The only other family 
events to be noted in this interval are the addition of two 
other boys, George Robertson, in 1844, and John Gray, in 
1847. I pass on again to matters of public interest. In 
1843 the Senate of Mississippi proceeded to incorporate the 
University by chartering the Board of Trustees. In the se- 
lection of the members of the Board, besides the fancied or 
real possession of some fitness for the office, the Senate was 
guided by what was regarded as good policy, the appoint- 
ment of the trustees from various sections of the State as 
representatives of the people on the Board, so that the en- 
tire body of the citizens of the State might become more 
interested in the University. In connection with this action 
of the Senate, let me call attention to what seemed to me a 

246 



The Unb^rsity of Mississippi. 247 

co-incident event of private interest, though of a public na- 
ture. On a certain day, as I stood in the doorway of the 
Academy building, I observed the Hon. Simeon E. Adams, 
the senator from the county of Jasper, passing, on his re- 
turn home after the adjournment of the Senate. Being a 
personal friend, he called and informed me that the Senate 
had appointed me a trustee of the University, to represent 
the eastern part of the State. This information at once re- 
vived the latent incident of the Mobile reading room, which 
occurred in 1841, and which I had not brought up before 
my mind for two years. It seemed a sort of confirmation 
of my mental vision foreshadowing the anticipated connec- 
tion of myself with the University. The simple fact of my 
having received this appointment, wholly unexpected, wholly 
unsolicited by me, without the slightest effort on my part, 
seemed to me a verification of the fleeting vision which 
passed before my mind at the time referred to. I felt now 
that I was approaching something more eligible than my 
existing environments would have warranted, and that this 
was evidently the first step in my onward progress toward 
the goal of my aspirations. No one w4io studies and reads 
carefully the dealings of divine Providence in our lives can 
doubt for a moment that He sometimes — nay, if we were 
intelligent observers, always — permits " coming events to 
cast their shadows before." I certainly so interpreted 
this coincidence. The event which I saw foreshadowed or 
embodied very clearly before me then was that I should one 
day occupy a position in the Faculty of the University. Re- 
viewing the past now, after facts have been made known, 
and combining the various cotemporary points of my history 
then transpiring, it seems to me that every obstacle that 
might have prevented this issue was providentially removed. 
Calls for my services as a teacher were laid before me at 
that time, one to a professorship in Washington College, 
Tenn., and the other to a Presbyterial Academy in Alabama; 



248 John N. Waddel, D. D , LL. D. 

"but altliougii pressed upon me from respectable sources, cir- 
-cmnstances combined to prevent my consideration of them 
with any view to acceptance. I even had a correspondence 
with a very prominent minister of Alabama u^Don the subject 
of a candidacy for a chair in Oglethorpe University, and this 
^as, in my estimation, a very attractive position. But as I 
w^as not prepared to allow my name to go before the Synod 
of Alabama as a candidate, and as that body would not elect 
on an uncertainty, I was not elected, although I received a 
considerable vote. So I remained in control of Montrose 
Academy, as seemed to be the will of Providence. In the 
meantime, the trustees met and organized themselves for 
the work before them. I was not present at that meeting ; 
but subsequently other meetings were held to arrange pre- 
liminaries. I received official notice that such a meeting 
would be held in Oxford in April, 1847, and although my 
residence was distant from that place some two hundred miles 
or more, without any such conveniences as railroad or even 
mail-coach transportation, I resolved to attend. I performed 
the entire journey on horseback, and my long ride was ac- 
comphshed, in great measure, alone, through a wild and 
desolate region of country. This was my first attendance 
upon the deliberations of the Board after my appointment 
as a trustee. I was the bearer of letters of introduction to 
gentlemen of Oxford, and among them I met a cordial wel- 
come from Dr. Z. Conkey, an elder of the Presbyterian 
Church, with whom I made my temporary abode. 

The subjects of business which came before the Board 
were many details not needful to record, but I allude to 
only one now: the course of instruction to be pursued. 
I was appointed chairman of a committee to draw up a re- 
j)ort on that subject, to be presented at a subsequent meet- 
ing of the Board. Here I met for the first time those trus- 
tees of the University x^resent at that meeting*. Among 
them were Hon. Jacob Thompson, member of Congress for 



Ordained to the Ministry. 249 

many j^ears; Col. Thos. H. Williams, who had been the 
bond-paying- Democratic candidate for Governor in the daj'S 
of repudiation; Col. Brown and Judge Homtv, and other 
names not no^v remembered. I remained until after the 
Sabbath, and preached twice in the Presbyterian church, 
and thus made my first appearance in the place which then, 
all unknown to us, was to be my home during eighteen 3'ears 
of the future. I omitted to state at the proper time, that at 
a meeting of the Presbytery of Tombeckbee, in Columbus, 
Miss., on the 23d of October, 18^1:3, I was set apart to the 
full work of the gospel ministry ; so that in my case two 
years had been spent in study as a candidate, and two 3'ears 
in preaching as a licentiate, or probationer, for the minis- 
try. My ordination sermon w^as preached before the Pres- 
bytery on the text, Roman v. 1. ; the doctrine discussed 
being " Justification by Faith." I attended another meet- 
ing of the Board as a member in the following January, 
1848, in Jackson, during the session of the Legislature. 
By this time progress had been made in preparation for the 
opening of the institution, but still much remained to be 
done. On that occasion there were j^resent of the Board, 
Hon. Wm. L. Sharkey, the most distinguished jurist of the 
State; Judges E. C. Wilkinson and Pinckney Smith, Hon. 
Isaac X. Davis, and some others. The report of the pre- 
viously appointed Committee on the Course of Study being 
in order, and no member of that committee except myself 
being present, Messrs. Smith and Wilkinson were placed on 
that committee to act with me. I had already, during the 
interval of the meetings of the Board, prepared carefully 
this report, and had it ready for action by the Board. I 
called the newly appointed committee together that I might 
submit it to their consideration previous to its final discus- 
sion. On my reading it to this committee, very strenuous 
objections were offered by Judge Wilkinson to the adop- 
tion of the "Evidences of Christianity" as one of the 



250 John N. Waddill, D. D., LL. D. 

studies of the curriculum. With a mere statement of the 
fact that he objected to this item of the report, he proposed 
to postpone the further discussion of the subject until it 
should come before the Board. I read it the next day in 
full meeting, and at once Judge "Wilkinson attacked that 
particular point, and we discussed the subject at some 
length, without reaching any decision, and the further de- 
bate was arrested, being placed on docket for consideration 
at the next meeting, to be held at Oxford in July following. 
It was also determined that, at that meeting, the Board 
should proceed to the election of a Faculty, and a time 
should be set for the regular opening of the University, and 
the installation of the officers. 

I decided in my own mind, after this meeting, to become 
a candidate for the Professorship of Ancient Languages, 
and, accordingly, I tendered my resignation as a trustee. 
This was the last meeting of the Board at which I was 
23resent as a trustee. I resumed the duties of the Academy 
after the adjournment of the Board, and continued to teach 
and preach as usual until I was laid aside by a tedious ill- 
ness, which, for the time, disabled me. I dismissed the 
students somewhat in advance of the summer vacation, on 
this account. But the progress of events during the season 
brought about changes which induced me to close my enter- 
prise of teaching and preaching at Montrose, never to be 
there resumed. 



M^ 



CHAPTER XV. 

Election of the Faculty of the University. — Initiatory Difficul- 
ties. — Farewell Sermons. — Eemoval to Oxford, and Formaii 
Opening. 

T liealth continued feeble, so that I was unable to fill 
my pulpit from the 3rd of June to the 16th of July. 
After that I resumed preaching, and provided service for the 
churches to the best of my ability. In the meantime the 
Board of Trustees convened in Oxford, according to appoint- 
ment, for the election of a Faculty. As I was now a de- 
clared candidate for a chair, I had made all arrangements 
pm'suant to the presentation of my application. I had pro- 
vided myself with letters of endorsement from Eev. Dr. 
Church, President of the University of Georgia, who had been 
Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at the time of my 
membership of that institution, and at my graduation, in 
1829. I also had the favor of letters commendatory from 
Hon. "William L. Sharkey and Kev. L. J. Halsey, D. D., of 
Jackson, Miss. These, with one other similar document 
from a friend, constituting my credentials, were transmitted 
to Col. Williams, Secretary of the Board, and I made all my 
preparations to visit Oxford, and to be present during the 
election. I had even gone so far as to leave home on the 
journey, but I was again taken too ill to proceed, and re- 
turned home. 

The Board held their meeting, and engaged in the im- 
portant business of filling the presidency and the various 
professorships, according to published advertisement in the 
journals of the State. It proved to be a rather stormy 
meeting. There were three chairs to be filled besides that 

251 



352 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

of President. I was informed by some one present on the 
occasion that the names of one himdi-ed and seventy-five or 
more candidates were presented for these four offices, viz. : 
For President, there were seventeen apphcants : for Chem- 
istry and Natural Philosophy, thirty-five ; for Mathematics 
and K^ironomy, forty five ov fifty, and for the Ancient Lan- 
guages, enough additional candidates to make the above 
sum total. 

The discussion of two preliminary principles was insisted 
upon by Judge E. C. Wilkinson, viz., that the Evidences of 
Christianity should be excluded from the course of study, 
and, as an accompanying requisite to the full exclusion of 
this branch of study, no minister of the gospel of any de- 
nomination should ever be appointed to a chair in the Fac- 
ulty. In these two positions he w^as supported by another 
trustee, an avowed infidel, who, not being present, had dis- 
cussed them in a letter of fifteen pages, addressed to the 
Board, denouncing the whole Christian system, and resign- 
mg his seat on the Board. The ground of opposition to the 
Christian system and to Christian ministers was *' the 
assumption that the Evidences could not be taught without 
embodying the distinctive tenets of some one of the churches 
of the land, and that every minister would inevitably teach 
his own creed." Fui'thermore, it was argued by these gen- 
tlemen, that as the "University was the property of the State, 
and not of any sect or part}^ the people of all descriptions 
had a right to forbid any propagation of religion that would 
not be universally acceptable. " It was manifestly improj^er 
that such things should be permitted, and this w^o:ild be 
unavoidable should ministers of the gospel be eligible to 
professorships, or should the Evidences of Christianity form 
part of the course of study." 

I have in my possession, to this day, a letter from one of 
the wisest and most influential, and most devoted members 
of the Board, who particij^ated in this election, bearing date 



The Unh^ersity of Mississippi. 253 

July 19, 1848, stating the following facts: "One member 
of the Board resigned because the ' Evidences of Chris- 
tianity ' formed part of the curriculum, and in his letter of 
resignation made a long and heavy assault upon rehgion." 
Again he adds, "Another trustee followed this letter with 
an assault upon the ministry." 

Such was one of the difficulties which then pressed upon 
the University in its infancy. Like all great enterprises, 
under similar circumstances, this institution has been beset, 
at intervals, with difficulties through its entire career. The 
foregoing discussion was held in pubhc, and many of the 
influential citizens of the town, as well as of the surround^ 
ing country, were present and heard the debate. Among 
them w^ere members of the various Christian churches, w^ho 
viewed the entire meeting and the discussion with senti- 
ments of the strongest disapproval, and such was the indig- 
nation aroused in the community, as to result in a decided 
re- action before the close of the election. There can be 
no doubt, how^ever, that the assaults referred to above had 
exerted some influence upon the minds of members of the 
Board, although they w^ere not successful to the extent de- 
signed, and hoped for, by those who made them. They 
proceeded with the election, and balloting in great earnest- 
ness continued day after day until Friday, with interrup- 
tions occasionally for interchange of views. Col. Williams, 
Secretary of the Board, the friend to whom I had intrusted 
my credentials, wrote to me afterward, giving me the state- 
ment that before the day arrived for the election of a Pro- 
fessor of the Ancient Languages, for which chair I was an 
applicant, he had, by some means, lost my papers, and his 
only reliance for my success was personal advocacy of my 
claims. The first election was, of course, for the office of 
President, for which there were quite a number of candidates. 
I know the names of but two, and of these only as beijig the 
two most prominent before the Board. These were Hon. 



254 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

A. B. Longstreefc, once so eminent in Georgia, as a jurist 
and a writer, an editor of an influential political jcun-nal, 
and President of the Emory College at Oxford, who had 
also become a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
In his palmy days in his own State I regarded him as 
among the most eloquent orators I ever heard. I know, 
however, that he was not a candidate for the office on this 
occasion, and was voted for by his friends from their con- 
viction of his preeminent qualifications. The fact of his 
ministerial character, it was understood at the time, defeated 
liim. His successful opponent was George F. Holmes, then 
Professor in the College of William and Mary, in Virginia. 
Mr. Holmes was furnished with most flattering testimonials 
of accomplished scholarship, and has held a chair of import- 
ance since in the Faculty of the University of Virginia. He 
was not a minister of the gospel. After some distinct bal- 
lotings he was elected. He was not known to any of the 
Board, and, at this time, he was about twenty-eight years of 
age. He was not present on the occasion. 

The second j)rofessorship filled was that of Mathematics 
and Astronomy. The Board, by a majority, out of many 
opponents, elected Albert Taylor Bledsoe, a native of Ken- 
tucky, and at the time of his election a citizen of Si^ring- 
field. 111. He was a graduate of West Point Military 
Academy. His age was thirty-eight. He was present. 
The Board then proceeded to select an incumbent for the 
chair of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. After several 
ballotings the choice fell upon Professor John Millington. 
He was also at the time a Professor in W^illiam and Mary 
College. He was far advanced in life, but eminent for scien- 
tific attainments, and universally beloved for his amiable 
traits. 

The fourth election, which did not occur until Friday, was 
decided, on first ballot, in favor of myself, for the chair of 
Ancient Languages. I was then residing in Jasper county. 



Election to PKOFEssoRsmr. 255 

Miss., a native of South Carolina, and a graduate of the 
University of Georgia. I was, at the time of my election, 
in my thirty-seventh year. It was the only office for which 
I had ever been a candidate before, and I am thankful to be 
able to say that I have never presented my name formally as a 
candidate for any office at any subsequent period of my life. 
I wdll dismiss this topic just now for the sake of explain- 
ing a matter connected with my election. AMien I received 
from the secretary of the Board, Col. Williams, the official 
notilication of my election, I learned that the title of the 
chair I was expected to fill was " Professor of Greek, Latin, 
Hebrew, French, German, and Spanish ! " No sooner had 
I read this statement than I at once decided to decline the 
office, and I wrote to the secretary to that effect, and asked 
an explanation. In his repty, he wrote that I would not be 
exjDected to give instruction in any languages except Greek 
and Latin. He gave as the reason for the addition of the 
other names to the title of the professorship that the Board 
desired to have it publicly understood that a Department of 
Language was contemplated in the system of instruction 
when complete, but that the amount of available means at 
the control of the University was as yet inadequate to admit 
of such an extension. Furthermore, they wished me to un- 
derstand that I would be expected and required to fill only 
that part of this chair that called for the ancient languages 
of Greek and Latin. This being understood, I immediately 
began my preparations for removal from Montrose, and for 
making my future field of labor in the University, and my 
home in Oxford. One of my first cares in leaving that re- 
gion of country was to endeavor to obtain the services of 
some approved and devoted minister for the churches I was 
about to leave. I secured the presence of Bev. Joseph B. 
Adams, who had been long known to me as a minister of 
the Presbyterian Church, a respected member of the Pres- 
bytery of Tuskaloosa, to assist me at a communion meeting 



25G John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

at the cliurch of Montrose. The congregation were pleased 
with him, and in due time he was invited to that and to 
some other church. He came, and I felt glad and thankful 
that this destitute and thinly-settled part of the country 
would still be supplied with the preaching of the gospel. I 
paid farewell visits to several of those more distant points to 
which I had from time to time been giving my services dur- 
ing my residence there. It is to me a gratifying fact that 
the churches I had been supplying have never been entirely 
vacant since I left them, although they were, in regard to 
this world's goods, not by any means rich. I knew 
that there were people of God there, "rich in faith, and 
heirs of the kingdom." I preached farewell sermons to the 
white members of Montrose church, and a separate one to 
the colored people. I also took leave in the same way of 
Mount Moriah church on the last Sabbaths of my abode in 
Jasper county. Previous to my departure I executed to the 
elders of the Montrose church, as trustees, a title-deed to 
the eighty acres of land on which the church and Academy 
buildings had been erected, conditioned upon its being pre- 
served for the benefit and use of the Presbyterian church 
forever, in connection with the Old School General Assembly.. 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

General Educational History of Mississippi. 

I PROPOSE to pause at this i^oint, and suspend the on- 
ward course of the narrative in order to introduce an 
account of the earher movements of the State of Mississippi 
in the great work of education. This is appropriate to my 
relation to the subject at the time now undergoing review, 
as I was a citizen of the State, and not only so, but a prac- 
tical educator also, and, in addition to these two particulars, 
I was for eighteen years afterwards connected with the 
State University. 

^ The general remark may be made, by way of introduce 
tion, that among the matters entitled to the serious consid- 
eration of a new State, the education of her people stands 
in the front rank of importance. It is not more true of 
Mississippi, however, than of other States at their organiza- 
tion, that comparatively little is accomi^lished in this grand 
department of human progress, compared with what is done 
in those interests that are purely material. It may proba- 
bly be attributable in some measure to the character of our 
people, always energetic and enterxmsing in the direction of 
that which is practically progressive, and which addresses 
itself to their more palpable interests. We are not a staid, 
not strictly a conservative people. 'While older nations look 
well to the foundations upon which to erect their national 
enterprises, and are unwilling to move until every point in 
their future progress is outlined and thoroughly matured 
and fixed, based upon solid and substantial supports, the 
American rushes to conclusions and grasps after results, 
little recking what is behind him, and as little caring for in- 

257 



258 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

tervening opposition. The subduing of the forests and re- 
ducing of the soil to cultivation, so as to render the country 
habitable, and to prepare the way for human civilization, 
are the objects first contemplated by the American settler 
of new regions. The pioneers of Mississippi formed no ex- 
ception to this rule. Yet there remain on record abundant 
evidences of the fact that, at a very early period after the 
country came into possession of the United States, a disposi- 
tion to encourage education was developed among the peo- 
ple of the territory. In the year 1802 Jefferson College, 
near Natchez, located at Washington, was founded, and in 
1803 an entire township of land was granted by Congress 
for its support. In 1812 Congress passed an act for the 
location of those lands. In 1820, three years after the ad- 
mission of the State into the Union, the Legislature of Mis- 
sissippi granted to the College a loan of $4,000. It has 
been a useful institution, but has never attained very high 
position as a College. The record of the State, however, is 
honorable, since in the early period of her organized exist- 
ence, from 1798 to 1848, there had been established one 
hundred and ten institutions of learning, under the various 
names of Universities, Colleges, Academies, and Schools, ex- 
clusive of schools founded upon the sixteenth sections of 
public lands, proving that an entire neglect of the educa- 
tional w^ants of the people has not been prevalent in her past 
Hstory. Still, our gratification in the statement of this fact 
is subject to some abatement by the consideration that the 
history of these various institutions, in the majority of cases, 
has shown them to have been inefiicient. Of course, we ex- 
cept from this last remark that noble old monument of the 
Christian zeal and generosity of the Louisiana and Missis- 
sippi Presbyterians, *' Oakland College," which, until de- 
spoiled by the ruthless hands of savage soldiery, had 
wrought so grandly in the service of the church and of the 
State during thirty years or more, in fiUing the pulpit, the 



Education in Mississippi. 259 

bar, and the honored circles of social and professional life 
vdth. its alumni. It must not be forgotten, in this connec- 
tion, that allhcugh Oakland, as a college, after winding up 
her great work, passed away, she made a bequest of the 
remnant of her estate to a worthy daughter, " Chamberlain- 
Hunt Academy," which bears the hereditary honors, and 
promises already to reflect permanent credit upon her emi- 
nent ancestry, and to be one of the ornaments of the church 
and of the State. The College also of the Baptist Church, 
located at Clinton, is doing a noble work for that enter- 
prising denomination of Christians, which was begun early 
in the educational history of the State. The full history of 
these institutions is relegated as a task to others of more in- 
timate association with them, and who have enjoyed access 
to wider and more accurate sources of information in regard 
to them. As to other efforts in the line of building up the 
educational interests of the State, they were mainly confined 
to private and local enterprise, and although, in many cases, 
unsuccessful, yet they were commendable ; they pointed in 
the right direction. Even if they did fail to achieve all that 
was desirable and enduring, it must be attributed, in part 
at least, to the state of the country. The first settlers of 
any country must always secure, as a primaiy necessity, the 
means of Uving. In addition to this, a new country is gen- 
erally crowded with adventurers, who come with golden 
visions of vast fortunes speedily to be amassed, and thus 
that attention which is indispensable to the success of edu- 
cation is directed to other objects not so worthy. 



CHAPTEE XYII. 

The Peepabatoey Steps for the Opening of the Univeesity. — 
Erection of Buildings and Inaugueation Ceeemonies. 

THE initiatory steps in founding the University -^ere 
taken in 1819, two years after Mississippi had been ad- 
mitted into the Union. By the hberahty of the Congress 
of that year an entire township of the pubhc domain within 
the State, amounting to 23,040 acres, was granted to the 
State for the purpose of establishing a seminary of learn- 
ing. The title to this land was, by act of Congress, vested 
in the State Legislature, in trust, for the support of the in- 
stitution. We learn also, by further investigation, that the 
trust w^as accepted by the Legislature, and that, in pursu- 
ance of the spirit and intent of the act, " lands of great 
value" were selected by the State, and in due time thirty- 
five and one-half of the thirty-six sections were sold. Notes 
were taken of the purchasers with approved security, and 
deposited in the Planter's Bank in 1833 for collection. 
Several years thereafter, the first action was taken toward 
the application of the fund thus accruing to the purposes 
for which the grant was designed. 

Commissioners had been appointed by the Legislature 
with authority to visit various sections of the State, and re- 
ceive j)i*oposals inviting the location of the University in 
their midst. In 1841, after some discussion of all the 
propositions, Oxford, in La Fayette county, was selected, hy 
a majority of one vote, as the seat of the institution. The 
citizens of the town and county had purchased a section of 
land, and had donated it to the authorities of the Univer- 
sity as a site whereon to build. 

260 



Erection of Buildings for the UNrv'EESiTY. 261 

In 1844 the Legislature chartered the institution, under 
the following Board of Trustees : J. Alexander Ventress, 
Woodville, Miss. ; John Anthony Quitman, Natchez, Miss. ; 
William L. Sharkey-, Jackson, Miss. ; Edward C. Wilkinson, 
Yazoo City, Miss. ; Francis L. Hawks, Holly Springs, Miss. ; 
Alexander H. Pegues, Oxford, Miss. ; Wm. Y. Gholson, 

; Alexander M. Clayton, Marshall county. Miss. , 

Jacob Thompson, Oxford, Miss. ; PiTor Lee, Jackson, Miss. ; 
James M. Howry, Oxford, Miss. ; John J. McCaughan, Mis- 
sissippi City, Miss. ; John N. Waddel, Montrose, IMiss. 

Shortly after the act of incorporation, the Board pro- 
ceeded to organize themselves, as already recorded on a pre- 
ceding page, into a regular body, and commenced at once to 
discharge their important duties. The erection of the 
necessary buildings for the purposes of the institution was 
the first object to be accomplished by the Board. Accord- 
ingly, contracts w^ere entered into wdth an architect, w^ho 
was engaged to superintend the work, after the ordinary 
advertisements published in the public journals, and me- 
chanics were employed. In the meantime, other matters 
demanding the close attention of the Board were in pro- 
gress, and other points were in need of settlement, so that 
the University should be prepared to begin its operations in 
all its functions simultaneously. While, then, the material 
for the buildings was being collected and put together upon 
such a scale as was deemed consistent with the important 
nature of the great enterprise, and the means at their dis- 
posal, the Board of Trustees found themselves pressed 
with other equally important subjects, viz. : The character 
and number of those who should be by them charged with 
the conduct, discipline and instruction of the institution, 
together with the outline and curiiculum of the studies to 
be pursued in the University by those who should seek ad- 
mission into the University. 

I had dismissed my school in May or in June, on account 



262 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. T>. 

of protracted illness, and had become convalescent about the 
time of my election. After this I made all the preparations 
above mentioned, and took my leave of the country about 
the last of October. The exercises of the University were 
to commence on the 6th of November, and we arrived in 
good time to become settled for the work upon which we 
were so soon to enter. The inaugural exercises of the Univer- 
sity consisted of an address by Hon. Jacob Thompson, on 
behalf of the Board of Trustees, delivered in the Lyceum, in 
the Chemical lecture-room, which, at that time, was the only 
j)ublic hall on the campus capacious enough to accommodate 
an audience of any considerable size. This was responded 
to by the President, George F. Holmes, in an elaborate ora- 
tion, a large and interested assembly being present. Thus 
organized, the Faculty and students were prepared to begin 
the practical discharge of their res23ective duties, but under 
many difficulties and inconveniences. In an interior town, 
remote from the great thoroughfares, and long before lines 
of railroads were established to any great extent, no text- 
books at all were to be obtained, and great delay ensued 
before this want and that of other essentials could be sup- 
plied. In due time, however, the new machinery was fairly 
put into operation. The Board of Trustees seemed gratified 
with the promising prospects before the institution, the 
citizens welcomed the Faculty to their new residence among 
them, and quite a concourse of newly-arrived students made 
their appearance upon the Camj)us, prepared to matriculate. 
Such was the scene presented on the 6th day of November, 
1848, by the various parties interested in the opening of the 
University. We found, on our opening, that the necessary ar- 
rangements and buildings which had been contracted for were 
now in readiness for partial occupation, and consisted of the fol- 
lowing ; The campus, which was of very great natural beauty, 
was located in the centre of the section of land donated by the. 
citizens of the town of Oxford and the county of Lafayette^ 



Aekangement of Buildings. 26S 

It began from a level sjoot facing east, and slo^^ing gently 
and regularly for several hundred yards in that direction, 
and extending on the north and on the south to a sufficient 
space for a large and capacious circle, the circumference of 
which was occupied by dormitories, residences for the mem- 
bers of the Faculty, chapel, and Lyceum. This last-men- 
tioned building being the most prominent, occupied the 
central point of the circle at its highest elevation, and the 
others on the right and left at successive points of the cam- 
pus until the circle was complete. The Lyceum was an im- 
posing structure of the height of three stories, and with a 
front portico supported by six large and handsome columns. 
It contained, on the first floor, two rooms and a large chem- 
ical theatre for lectures, and a laboratory running back, of 
large dimensions. In the second story was, in front, a fine 
room devoted to a collection of shells and geological and 
mineral specimens of great value and beauty ; and besides 
this room, were four rooms for lecture and recitation pur- 
poses. The third floor was occupied at that time by the 
Library and similar rooms, corresponding to those of the 
second story. On the right and left spaces of the campus' 
were dormitories for the use of the students, as study and 
sleeping apartments. These were of a uniform height 
with the Lyceum (three stories), and each consisting of 
thirty-six rooms. At first they presented a bare front, with 
only ordinary entrances by a small door opening into each of 
the three halls; but at a later period handsome three-story 
verandas were added to each dormitory, which presented a. 
fine, ornamental front. The capacity of these three build- 
ings was estimated for the accommodation of over two hun- 
dred students. On opposite sides of the campus, and adja- 
jacent to the dormitories, were erected two double-tenement 
buildings for Professors, also of three stories in height, each 
tenement consisting of six rooms, or with twelve rooms un- 
der the same roof, to each of which buildings, at a subse- 



264 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

quent period, two other rooms were added on the ground 
floor, A three-story building was erected on the north 
lower curve of the campus as a chapel for daily w^orship. 
The first and second stories consisted of a ground floor, and 
a gallery, which extended on three sides of the house, to ac- 
commodate audiences on occasions of Commencement exer- 
cises. The third story was appropriated to the two Literary 
Societies of the University. These buildings were added to 
afterwards by others, not on the campus, but adjacent to it. 
The most important of these was a large building for the 
use of the Observatory, lecture-room, and apparatus for 
Analytical Physics and Astronomy, together with rooms for 
the family of the Professor. Then also, as the original hall 
for commons in the rear of the Lyceum was found to be in- 
sufficient for the accommodation of the increased number of 
the boarding students, a new and more capacious hall was 
Touilt outside of the campus, and at some distance from it. 
With the exception of this last structure, and a Professor's 
Tesidence, which was purchased by the Board, all the build- 
ings were enclosed in the campus. One more building was 
erected in 1889, within the inclosure, for library jDurposes, on 
the lower section of the circle. 

The cost of all these buildings amounted to the round 
sum of two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. 
The various needed classes of apparatus for illustration of 
the sciences, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, physics and 
astronomy, cost originally the sum of sixty thousand dollars. 

Ample apioroxoriation is annually made for the library, 
which consists ^of 9,000 volumes, besides 3,000 Government 
Reports, worth $20,000. To this adding lands and resi- 
dences, leased, amounting to $30,000, and the whole sums up 
$335,000. 

The acknowledged debt of the State to the University 
is $540,000, and $15,000 will be added to the further equip- 
ment of the observatory. The University campus j)ossesses 



The University Grounds. 265 

as great attractions of natural beauty as any location of a 
similar natui'e and for similar purposes. The beautiful in- 
<;linatiou of the grounds, and the grand old oaks which 
tower above and overshadow the campus, make the sj)ot one 
to endear the University to those who have been privileged 
to enjoy its priceless advantages. 



I 

I 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

Genebaij View of Matteks Connected with the Fiest Session of 

THE UnIVEBSITY. 

THE corner-stone of the Lyceum had been laid with Ma- 
sonic honors, some time previous to the period under 
consideration ; an oration had been pronounced by (if I mis- 
idke not) John J. McCaughan, Esq., and the inauguration 
exercises, as described on a previous page, having passed to 
the satisfaction of all concerned, we felt now that the work- 
ing time had arrived, when, all these preliminaries having 
been completed, they were to be realized in the actual 
grand results which had been anticipated, and which had 
been predicted by the friends and directors of the institu- 
tion. Hopes and visions of splendid success must now be 
brought to the test of every-day application, and the small 
corps of instructors began to realize now that the heavy re- 
sponsibility of putting into successful operation all the ex- 
ternal and internal machinery of this great enterprise, was 
resting upon them. The progress of the session just open- 
ing — the first of the University — proved to the Faculty that 
the office of Professor — always arduous in the most favor- 
able circumstances — was, in this case, by no means a sine- 
cure, no mere child's play. 

The institution, as the reader of this history may have 
anticipated, was made to pass through a season of expe- 
rience that severely tested its capacity of successful endur- 
ance. This is traceable to two separate originating causes : 

1. The confidence of the citizens of the State had re- 
ceived a shock so violent, in consequence of the public dis- 
cussion which was held by the Board of Trustees at the 

266 



The First Students. 267 

time of the election of the Faculty, that it was not j^ossible 
io repress some lingering apprehensions, awakened at that 
period, in regard to the infidel tendencies of the University. 
The prejudices thus aroused were with difficulty removed. 

2. Fidelity to my office as historian of this noble institu- 
tion impels me to record its "lights and shadows," its dark 
as well as its bright days. Hence it must be stated that, 
in all probability, very rarely, if ever, was an institu- 
tion of learning attended by a body of students so disor- 
derly and turbulent as those of the first session proved to 
be, taken as a mass. True it is that, among those early 
students were numbered some of the first young men of the 
country ; but in point of morals and habits of application 
to duty, and intellectual advancement, the large body of the 
students were idle, uncultivated, viciously disposed, and un- 
governable. The difficulties that were connected with the 
management and control of the students were attributable, 
more than to any other cause, to the assemblage i.t one spot 
of so many untrained young men and boys, many of whom had 
never before attended such an institution, and whose imag- 
inations had been allured by the traditional conception that 
a college life was only a scene of fun and frolic. This sub- 
ject may be dismissed wdth the remark that, in my ojDinion, 
nothing saved the University from utter and speedy ruin,, 
under God's blessing, but the sternest and most rigid exer- 
cise of discipline. 

The Faculty, let it be remembered, consisted of but four 
members at this time, viz : President George Frederick 
Holmes, A. M. ; Albert Taylor Eledsoe, LL. D., Professor of 
Mathematics and Astronomy ; John Millington, M. D., Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, etc. ; John New- 
ton Waddel, D. D., Professor of Greek and Latin Lan- 
guages. The first class, regularly organized, and the high- 
est then known in the University, was the So^Dhomore, and 
as this class had before it the Junior and Senior classes 



268 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

tlirougli which its members were to pass, of course our 
first graduating class with the degree of B. A. was sent 
forth in 1851. I have alluded, in a foregoing page, to the 
fact that no text-books on any subject of instruction could 
be procured in the town of Oxford. In this emergency, I 
made a special visit to the town of Holly Springs, where a 
<}lassical school had been in operation under the superin- 
tendence of the Kev. Francis L. Hawks, long before his ap- 
pointment to the Bishopric in the Episcopal Church. I 
correctly supposed that text-books, especially in my depart- 
ment, might be found on sale in that place, and, perhaps, a 
supply for other departments. I procured such as would 
provide for the pressing needs of our classes until better 
arrangements could be made. But the supply was meagre, 
and to the credit of those of our Faculty who were without 
text-books, they assembled the classes at the hours assigned 
to them, and delivered instructive lectures on their several 
subjects. President Holmes lectured regularly on History, 
and of this subject he was a proficient ; and Professor Mil- 
lington delivered lectures on the sciences of Chemistry and 
Natural Philosophy. Professor Bledsoe took charge of 
Mathematics, and engaged his students in temporary exer- 
cises, such as to him seemed best and most profitable for the 
time being. As for myself, I had full employment in giving 
text-book instruction to a number of students, who, for 
lack of advancement, were, most of them, only beginners. 
Among those, however, who were fitted for the highest class 
then organized, viz., the Sophomore, were two students who 
had been my pupils at Montrose Academy, and who were 
among the leading students of the class. I had students of 
all grades of advancement, from the elements of the Latin 
and Greek to the reading of Latin and Greek authors. 
AVhere a young man wished to master these languages, and 
had no knowledge of either, or of only Latin, in all such 
cases I bestowed so much of my private leisure hours as I 



DlSCrPLINE IN THE UNIVERSITY. 269^ 

could redeem from other matters upon them, giving them 
all possible aid, even in the grammars. It cannot be 
denied, then, that ^ve were engaged to the full extent of our 
time and opportunities in the discharge of our respective 
duties as professors in our several chairs of instruction; 
but after all that could be accomplished under circum- 
stances so adverse, the time of our students wa-s far from 
being fully occupied in profitable study, and being left, par- 
ticularly at night, to themselves, abundant opportunities for 
concocting mischief, and temptations were pressing upon 
them to indulge in all manner of sinful propensities. The 
Legislature of Mississippi had passed an act, previous to 
the opening of the Universit}^ that no intoxicating liquors 
should be sold in the town of Oxford, or within less than 
five miles thereof. Ob\dously this legislation was designed 
for the protection of the students against saloons. But the 
history of this prohibition, like that of all similar efforts, 
shows that the appetite for strong drink is one that, in most 
instances, is so imperious as to bid defiance to law or pub- 
lic sentiment, and it is found that a way to gratify it vn]\ be 
discovered by its victims in desx^ite of all measures to the 
contrary. For although, at that time, and for nine years 
after, there was no such method of transportation as rail- 
roads between Oxford and Memphis, those who desired ta 
have the poison availed themselves of the less expeditious 
mode of commercial intercourse offered by the wagons 
bearing cotton to market, and, in return, bringing all goods 
ordered, and this among other articles. Nor was this the only 
mode of evasion of the law which was practiced by parties 
interested. Druggists, keeping it by permission, would sell 
intoxicants on prescription by a physician, who would be in- 
duced too easily to furnish such a paper. In this way 
much of the evils of disorder and dissipation among the 
students prevailed, and the result was that the first ses- 
sion of the University was characterized by great trouble 



270 John L. AVaddel, D. D., LL. D. 

to the professors, and much severity of disciphne was en- 
forced. 

The disorder after a time became so notorious as to in- 
duce a visit of a part of the Trustees to the campus, and 
after a conference with the Faculty, a more rigid enforce- 
ment of the rules of discipline was insisted upon. 

Now, I need scarcely remark that the burden of discipline 
under all cases devolves upon the presiding officer. But 
"while our President was undoubtedly a polished scholar and 
gentleman, it cannot be claimed for him by his most ardent 
admirers that he possessed the talent of government, espe- 
cially of j^oung men. Indeed, it is one of those qualities 
which must be born with a man, and I believe that it is as 
truly an innate talent as the genius of the poet. It is one 
that cannot be acquired, and 3'et it may be wonderfully im- 
proved by experience. It was a practice to which the Presi- 
dent habitually resorted, and upon which he seemed en- 
tirely to rely for success in his government of the student- 
body, to make earnest appeals to the high-toned principles 
of true honor and gentlemanly manhood ; and this he evi- 
dently deemed abundantly direct and effectual in all cases 
of disorder and lawless outrage that might be prevalent in 
any student body. I hold this theory in a modified form, 
and have acted upon it accordingly, to a certain extent, in 
my career as an officer charged with the government of 
young men and immature boys. These appeals I regard as 
of vast importance, and in my experience they have proved 
eminently successful, and in all, except extremely depraved 
subjects, they should be adopted as constituting a highly 
valuable part of the system of academic rule. It is not to 
be doubted— -nay, it must be accepted as an essential ele- 
ment in the training of young men — that those in charge of 
their education should inculcate the highest principles of 
Christian truth, virtue, and honor. In the very outset, let 
it be distinctly announced to the students that they are 



Discipline in the University. 271 

supposed, in advance, to be gentlemen, and that they will 
be treated and dealt with as such until they so demean 
themselves as to forfeit a claim to such a character and 
prove that they belong to a different class. If the instructor 
succeeds in inspiring them with a proper degree of self-re- 
spect, this will lead to confidence in him and such respect 
for him as will prevent the perpetration of any offensive or 
ungentlemanly conduct on their part. At the same time it 
must be understood by the student-body, not by issuance 
of threats, but as the well-known consequence of all viola- 
tions of propriety, that in case such appeals should fail of 
their desired effect, resort must be had to more restrictive 
measures, and sterner methods must be adopted. Far be it 
from me to intimate that our first President was at all de- 
fective in his views of what constitutes true honor and vir- 
tue. I attribute to him no such deficiency. I only assume 
that his scholarly taste and pursuits, and his devotion to 
study, were so absorbing as to illustrate, in his case, an ex- 
cess of the suaviter iii modo, to the exclusion of a due ad- 
mixture of the fortiter in re. But although the Faculty 
numbered but four incumbents in the outset — a body too 
small for effective operations — yet even this number was 
diminished by the enforced absence of the President, leav- 
ing only three to manage the whole student-body and the 
entire interests of the institution — Professors Bledsoe, Mil- 
lington, and myself. The occasion of President Holmes's 
departure was the failing health of his child and of himself, 
which required that he should make a visit to Virginia for 
purposes of medical counsel. It was understood at the time 
that this withdrawal was only temporary, and that he would 
return when restored ; but as he never returned, the official 
functions of presiding officer devolved upon Professor Bled- 
soe, as the senior member of the Faculty in the order of 
election. Aided by the other two Professors, Millington 
-and myself, the affairs of the University were, after much 



272 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

trouble and trial, successfully brought to a respectable con- 
clusion, and the session closed with an exhibition by the 
students of elocution and composition, being an irregular 
Commencement occasion; but the institution was found 
without a President. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Annual Meeting of the BoAnD op Trustees — Election of Presi- 
dent. — SoMa Statistics. — Sketch of President Longstreet and 
Others. 

11HE Board of Trustees held their annual meeting in Ox- 
ford, and found that the first and most important duty 
was to elect a President, to fill the vacancy caused by the 
withdrawal of President Holmes. Having declared the 
office vacant, they proceeded to fill it by the unanimous 
election of Hon. and Eev. A. B. Longstreet, though not a 
candidate, and without his knowledge of such intention on 
their part. This gentleman had resigned the presidency of 
Emory College (the Georgia Methodist College, at Oxford), 
one year previous to this thne, and had accepted the same 
office in the Centenary, another Methodist College, in Louis- 
iana. Being disappointed in the expectations he had formed 
by representations made to him, and not meeting the en- 
couragement he had anticipated there, at the close of the 
first five months he resigned the office, and returned to 
Georgia, in July, 1849. It so happened that I had just ar- 
rived in Georgia, on a visit to my relatives, about the time 
of his return from Louisiana. The first intelligence that he 
received of his call to the University came to him througli 
me. I j)ropose now to present a brief sketch of this distin- 
guished man, who has filled so large a space in the public 
eye during a large part of the present century. It is im- 
possible, in any record of the past history of the University, 
to dismiss this rovcred and honored name with a mere 
statement of his connection with it and a complimentar}' 
notice of his administration of its affairs. Personal and 
18 273 



274 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

official intimacy with liim alike forbid such a course ; and 
j)eculiar relations of affection and family friendship between 
us revolt from any common-place notice of such a man. I 
must be indulged while I attempt some more extended 
jiotice of 

Rev. Augustus Baldwin Longsteeet, LL. D., T>. T>. 
The more familiar title, that by which he was best known 
among his earliest acquaintances and oldest friends, was 
"Judge Longstreet." He was born in South Carolina, but 
so large a part of his life and labors was spent in Georgia 
that he was known more as a Georgian than as a citizen of 
the former State. His name was a familiar household 
word in my native home from my early youth. He was a 
pupil of my father's celebrated academy at Willington, South 
Carolina, which he himself has immortalized in that chapter 
of the "Georgia Scenes " headed "The Debating Society.' 
There he was fitted for the Junior Class in Yale College, 
where, in the year 1813, he was graduated in a class of sev- 
enty. Subsequently he pursued his course in law at Litch- 
field, Conn., at the Law School of Tapping Eeeve and James 
Gould, under whose instruction so many distinguished men 
of the South pursued their legal studies preparatory to the 
practice of the profession. Having entered upon the career 
of an attorney at law in Georgia with prospects unusually 
bright, he soon rose to the highest rank, and stood among 
the foremost of a profession in which his compeers were 
such men as Berrien, Cobb, Dawson, and many others of 
abilities equally splendid. He rapidly won for himself such 
a reputation and achieved such fame as a finished and elo- 
quent orator that he could alwaj^s command as large an au- 
dience as any man in the State, and there were few who 
were so attractive as a speaker. Under the powerful influ- 
ence of God's Holy Spirit, when at the very height of his 
fame and popularity, he abandoned the legal profession and 



President Longstreet. 275 

tlie political life ^Yhicll was spread out before him, and, 
yielding to the chasteniDg hand of his heavenly Father, in 
a deep and sore afHiction, the loss of an only son, he ac- 
cepted, with an humble and devout spirit, what he believed 
the call of God to the holy ministry. While engaged in 
this exalted service he was called by his church to the 
Presidency of the Emory College, located at Oxford, Ga., 
where, without ceasing at all the functions of a gospel min- 
ister, he added to them the duties of a preceptor of youth, 
and occupied this position for thirteen years, with credit, 
honor, and usefulness. Called, as already recorded, to pre- 
side over the Centenary College, of Louisiana, ho accepted 
the call, but remained there only five months, when, finding 
the field wholly unsuited to his views, he resigned and re- 
turned to Georgia. Hardly had he arrived in the State 
when he received the information, from otl&cial and private 
sources, nearly at the same time, that he had been elected 
unanimously to the Presidency of the University of Missis- 
sippi, not having been a candidate for the office. Here his 
career was eminently successful. Entering upon the duties 
of his office in Sei)tember, 18-19, he gave his best services to 
the institution, and in the unparalleled prosperity of the 
University during the seven years of his incumbency, he 
reaped the truest, richest, and most gratifying reward for 
all his unwearjdng and faithful toils. 

On his entrance upon the duties of his office he was con- 
fronted at once by the two difficulties to which allusion has 
been already made, viz. : 1, The bad repute of the Univer- 
sity for order and discipline ; 2, The reputation which had 
been unjustly attributed to it, but which had, by natural 
consequence, cleaved to the institution, that its tendencies 
were towards infidelity. The result of the second session 
(the first of the new administration) could hardly be consid- 
ered a success, in the usual acceptation of that word, in all 
respects, there being in attendance during the whole year 



276 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

only seventy- six students. It was soon ascertained, how- 
ever, by tlie people of the State that there was at the helm 
a master spirit, and year by year the patronage steadily in- 
creased until the nmnber two hundred and sixty -four was 
reached. Although this number was attained after his re- 
signation, it is not to be doubted for a moment that this 
prosperity was due to the wise administration of President 
Longstreet, which had gained for the University the entire 
confidence of the people of the State. Naturally, therefore, 
the impulse imparted by his instrumentality to the Univer- 
sity continued to operate after he had left it. 

The resignation of this pure-minded, upright, and able 
college executive took effect in July, 1856, and I take occa- 
sion, at this point of his record, to present to the reader my 
estimate of him as he was known to me in the capacity of a 
public servant and in the sacred retirement of private life. 

(1.) As a^ndllo servant. His character was adorned not 
merely with a morality current with the world, but with the 
enduring yet chastened lustre of Christian purity. He was 
vigilant without being offensive ; he succeeded in impressing 
students with the conviction that he was solicitous for their 
highest intellectual and moral advancement; he was emi- 
nently self-i30ssessed, preserving ever self-control; he gov- 
erned without any ostentatious display of the machinery of 
government. He possessed, in a remarkable degree, the 
faculty of swaying the student-body during exciting scenes. 
Equally estimable was he 

(2.) In private life. Genial and cordial in his tempera- 
ment, he was well-known as j)ossessed of a deep and subtle 
vein of rich humor, which was irresistible in its cheerful 
and even mirthful influence. In his heart there was no 
malice or bitterness, and his wit partook of no sarcasm for 
the person, but was aimed at the follies of the times which 
called for rebuke. He was charitable in his judgments, 
liberal in his views, and public-spirited in any good cause. 



Prof. John Millington. 277 

His opinions in religion and politics were preeminently de- 
cided, yet with catholicity and charity of tenderness towards 
the creeds of others, and with entire absence of doj^-matism 
on the one hand, or timidity in expressing his views on the 
other. As a preacher, he was solemn, earnest, and instruc- 
tive; as a writer, his style was chaste and beautiiul ; as a 
man, then, take him for all in all, his character will bear the 
closest scrutiny in public or private life. He was a kind 
husband, an affectionate father, a humane master, a consid- 
erate neighbor, a genial companion, an affable teacher, a 
wdse counsellor, a man of faith and trust in God, enjoying 
to a degree that was remarkable the assurance of his accept- 
ance with his heavenly Father. He tendered his resigna- 
tion of the office of President m July, 1856, and retired to a 
residence distant some twelve miles from Oxford, where he 
proposed to spend the evening of his days in tranquil re- 
tirement. In this, however, he was destined to be disap- 
pointed, as on the 25th of November, 1857, he was elected 
President of the South Carolina College, and after two j^ears 
spent there, was compelled to abandon the office and retire 
to private life by the revulsion of public affairs consequent 
upon the breaking out of the civil war. After the close of 
the strife he returned to Oxford, and ended his days in the 
midst of his family and his many friends on the 9th of July, 
1870, aged seventy-nine years nine months and eighteen 
da3's, leaving as a precious legacy to his descendants a spot- 
less reputation and the example of a transcendently noble life. 

Of another of my revered and beloved colleagues of the 
first Faculty of the University of Mississippi I propose to 
give my reminiscences as a part of the history of the insti- 
tution. I allude to 

Professor John Millington, M. D. 
An Englishman by birth and education, he had ah-eady 



278 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

attained advanced age at the time of liis election to tlie 
chair of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy in the "Univer- 
sity. I remember, on an occasional interview of the Facalty 
soon after the opening of the first session, a proposal being 
made that each should state his age, Dr. Millington claimed 
to be sixty years of age. He was reared in London, and he 
was the associate and pupil of the celebrated chemist, Fara- 
day, and an associate of McAdam, the road-maker, and other 
distinguished savants of that period, being himself a mem- 
ber of the Royal Society. He was profoundly versed in the 
science of Mathematics and its applications to civil en- 
gineering and his own professional departments. He had 
published a work on Mechanics and one on Civil Engineer- 
ing. He came to the New World, as I have heard from his 
own lips, to act as superintendent of the interests of an Eng- 
fish company in the mines of Mexico, and af ier some years 
spent there he came to the United States, and in 1835 he 
was made Professor of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy 
in the College of "William and Mary, in Virginia. He occu- 
pied that chair for twelve years, and left it to accept the 
same chair in the University of l^Jississij^pi in 1848. Dr. 
Millington was in temperament a child of nature, full of 
*'the milk of human kindness" ; guileless and a stranger to 
malice and envy; and his was a character of the utmost 
simplicity and honesty. Conscious of no fraud or deceit in 
himself, he suspected none in others. Faithful and just in 
the discharge of duty and in the fulfillment of his relative 
and personal obligations, he never indulged in charging 
others with any deficiency of these qualities until he fell a 
victim, as he sometimes did, in dealings with men, to the 
unscrupulous and unprincipled. Even then he was disposed 
to forgive, full of that charity that " thinketh no evil" and 
"covereth a multitude of sins." He took for granted that 
men were w^hat they professed to be. 

He w^as wholly devoid of any disciplinary ability, and yet 



Prof. Albert Taylor Bledsoe, 279 

such was the universal love and respect with which he in- 
spired his pupils, that he had no dixSculty of controllings 
them. A member of the Protestant Episcopal church, he 
was devout without bigotry, and while consistently devoted 
to his own church, never ostracised others. 

He remained connected with the University during the 
first five years of its existence, when he resigned to accept 
the chair of Chemistry and Toxicology in the Medical Col- 
lege of Memphis. Here he resided until the civil war be- 
gan. He had possessed himself of a most beautiful and 
romantic home in the quiet little village of La Grange, 
Tenn. — fit retreat for a sage in the decline of life — and here 
he fondly hoped to close the evening of a long and labori- 
ous life in peace. But he was doomed to a sad disappoint- 
ment of his cherished hopes. La Grange became one of 
the points of permanent occupancy by the army of the 
United States, and, although he complied with all the re- 
quirements of the government, and availed himself of all 
legal means of protection for himself, his famil}' and his 
propert}^ which were offered to him by the authorities of 
the United States, yet all this availed him nothing. He was 
robbed, his lovely home was despoiled by the ruthless rav- 
ages of war, and to avoid these intolerable evils he removed 
to Philadelphia. There he resided until the close of the 
war, and, subsequently, took up his abode in Bichmond, 
Va., where he closed his life, being, as reported, eighty-nine 
years of age. When he closed his career in death, one of 
the kindest, gentlest and truest hearts that ever warmed 
human bosom ceased to throb. 

Albert Taylor Bledsoe, LL. D. 
At the time of his election to the chair of Mathematics 
and Astronomy in the University he was a citizen of Spring- 
field, 111., in the practice of law. He was born in Kentucky 
in 1808. He was appointed to a cadetship in the [Military 



280 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

Academy at West Point in 1825, at the age of seventeen, 
and be was graduated in 1830. He was in the miUtarv ser- 
vice of the United States two years, and then resigned. At 
West Point he received his scholastic, as well as his military 
training. Here also he enjoyed the great privilege of attend- 
ing the chaplaincy of Rev. Charles P. Mcllvaine, afterwards 
Bishop of the Diocese of Ohio, and who was so highly es- 
teemed and beloved by all the evangelical churches of the 
country. I learned from himself that at a time of a religi- 
ous interest which occurred during Dr. M's term of ser- 
vice as chaplain, he made a j^ublic profession of religion. 
Of this noble minister of Christ I have often heard Profes- 
sor Bledsoe speak in terms of unqualified admiration and 
esteem. I have alwaj's heard that he became a minister in 
the Episcopal Church, and served in that capacity somo 
years. In 1833 ha became Professor of Mathematics in 
Kenyon College, in Gambler, Ohio; thence, after serving 
two years, he was transferred to the same chair in Miami 
University, and from 1840 to 1848, he practiced law as 
above stated in Springfield, 111. He was elected to the chair 
of Mathematics and Astronomy in the University of IMissis- 
sippi in 1848, and in 1854 he was elected to the chair of 
Mathematics in the University of Virginia. 

AVith regard to his qualifications as a mathematician, 
I have never heard him represented otherwise than as an 
accomplished master of that department. My impression, 
formed from my association with him for several years, is 
that he did not find his highest interest and congenial en- 
joyment in that branch of exact science. I have heard him 
say that he regarded theology as the queen of sciences, 
metaphysics her hand-maiden, and mathematics next in rank. 

In 1845 he had j)ublished a work, the title of which was 
''An Examination of President Edwards on the Will," pub- 
lished in 1845, of which work I have seen but one copy, and 
as I did not read that, I can give no report of the character 



Albert Taylor Bledsoe, LL. D. 281 

of its contents. In 1855 or '56 lie published another work, 
much larger, to which was given the title of " Theodicy, 
or Vindication of the Divine Glory," and an "Essay on 
Liberty and Slavery." The design of the "Theodicy" was 
to vindicate the justice of God in permitting, or ordaining, 
natural and moral evil in the world. It was, I remember, 
also among the aims of the author, often expressed, so to 
characterize the system of Scripture doctrine as to avoid 
the extremes of High Calvinism on the one hand, and that 
of Arminiauism on the other. 

In 1854 he was elected to the chair of Mathematics in 
the University of Virginia, which became vacant by the 
dsath of Professor Edward Courtenay, and thus he closed 
his term of service in the University of Mississippi. This 
position he continued to fill until the occui-rence of the war 
in 1861. 

During a part of the time of the continuance of hostili- 
ties he held the ofiice of Assistant Secretary of War. After 
the close of the war he visited Europe ; and on his return 
he established himself in Baltimore as editor of the South- 
ern Heviev, having as an associate editor, "William Hande 
Browne, who held this position from its inauguration in 
1867 to January, 1869. Professor Edward Stern then 
joined Professor Eledsoe for one year. In 1871 the Mevicin 
began to ax:)pear as the accredited organ of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church South, and was, in some sense, under its 
auspices. But the Bevieio was still pubHshed in Baltimore, 
and Professor Bledsoe, as its editor, received a salary. 
After several unexpected changes in the location of the office 
of pubhcation, from Baltimore to St. Louis, and thence to 
Nashville, he became the sole manager, and it was kept in 
existence under the management of his daughter, Mrs. Her- 
rick, who was his associate editor and business manager for 
three years, and sole editor for one year, as his health began 
to fail. The account of his last days, furnished by his 



282 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

daughter, Mrs. Herrick, of New Jersey, is full of interest to 
survivors who knew him in the days of his physical and in- 
tellectual vigor. It was well known that he "loved Po- 
lemics; that he had a love of truth that was very strong. 
This, with his fearlessness of temper, and his intolerance of 
humbug and cant, made his life a stormy one. But there 
was a marked change in the last three years of his life. His 
whole nature was softened and mellowed, and while losing 
none of the unwavering faith and fiery ardor that had 
always characterized him, he became more gentle and for- 
bearing, lie was stricken wdth a slight attack of paralysis 
while sitting in old Christ church, Alexandria, listening to 
an evangelist, on the 9th of November, 1877. IIis illness 
■was creeping paralysis, and one faculty after another seemed 
to go down, till at last he slept his life away, surrounded by 
his wife and all of his children, in full Christian faith." 

My last interview with him occurred in November, 1877, 
about the time of his slight attack of paralysis to which 
Mrs. H. refers above. I was in attendance on the sessions 
of the Synod of Virginia, in Alexandria, as Secretary of the 
Assembly's Committee of Education. I took tea with him 
at the residence of his son-in-law, Eev. Dr. Dinwiddie. On 
that occasion I found him as genial, and as full of humor 
and pleasantry as ever, and with the exception of a scarcely 
perceptible haltmg of his footstep, no change was observable. 

Feederick Augustus Porter Barnard, LL. D., D. D. 
In the year 1851, on the resignation of Prof. Bledsoe, Dr. 
F. A. P. Barnard was elected to fill the vacant chair of 
Mathematics and Astronomy. He had been filling various 
positions of honor and usefulness from his early manhood, 
and always to the entire satisfaction of those f.^r whom his 
labors were performed. Born in the village of Sheffield, 
Mass., on May 5, 18C9, he was graduated from Yale Col- 
lege, second in his class, in 1828. His life-work was that of 



Fkedeeick a. p. Babnard, LL. D., D. D. 283 

an educator, and his first field of labor was in the Hartford 
Grammar School soon after his graduation. In 1830 he 
was appointed tutor in Yale College. He served two years 
in that cax^acity, and subsequently he served in two Asylums 
for Deaf Mutes, successively in the cities of Hartford and 
New York. From 1837 to 1848 he served in the Faculty of 
the University of Alabama as Professor of Mathematics and 
Natural Philosophy. From 1848 to 1854 he filled the chair 
of Chemistry in the same Faculty. He was then made a 
minister in the Episcopal Church, and in 1854, soon after 
that event, as above stated, he was elected to the chair of 
Mathematics and Astronomy in the University of Missis- 
sippi. On the resignation of President Longstreet, Dr. 
Barnard was elected to succeed him, iu 1856. In the ca- 
pacity of presiding officer, first under the title of President, 
and then of Chancellor, he served the University until the 
breaking out of " the war between the States." As was the 
case in most southern institutions of learning, scholastic ex- 
ercises were suspended, and many of the students volun- 
teered as soldiers, under the name of "The University 
Grays," and President Barnard resigned, and returned to 
the North. He was appointed to a position in the National 
Coast Survey, and resided in WashiDgton city. He held 
that position for a short time, and in 1864 he was called to 
the Presidency of Columbia College, in the city of New 
Y^'ork. He had been heard to say while in the occupancy of 
the Professorship in the University of Mississippi that he 
would "prefer the office of President of Columbia College 
to any other in the United States." This office he held in 
active service for twenty-four years, and in 1888, although 
he ceased to act, he was nominally President still, until 
1889, when he died, on Saturday, the 28th of AjDril, lack- 
ing just one week of the completion of the eightieth year 
of his age, having devoted his time, talents, and learning 
to the actual business of education and the promotion of 



284 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

scientific knowledge during the long period of more tliau 
sixty years. 

Dr. Barnard was a man of vast learning, and was among 
the foremost of the great scientific men of this age. While 
at the University of Mississippi the minute details of college 
management and discipline were so exacting as to preclude 
the possibility of his devoting much time to the interests of 
science on its broader theatre. He was not by nature a 
discii^linarian, and although greatly esteemed, he was not 
successful in the line of government. I was associated w^ith 
him buit one year during his presidenc}^ and I w^ell remem- 
ber that the session referred to closed with a number in ac- 
tual attendance less by about one hundred than that with 
which it opened. I do not think that he felt that the prac- 
tical work of governing" young men was at all in accordance 
•with his tastes, and he no doubt would have found his 
library and his apparatus to furnish a far more congenial 
atmosphere than the lecture or recitation-room, where he 
should meet a body of 3'oung students. Still, admitting 
this to bo true, few men of the present age can show such a 
record of grand achievements in the wide field of literary 
and scientific labor as Dr. Barnard has left behind him. 
Some have censured him for leaving the South at the open- 
ing of the war of the States ; but while, of course, we did 
not, and could not, sympathize with him in his preferences, 
at the same time who of the many critics of Dr. Barnard, 
placed in his circumstances, would have felt and acted 
differently ? It was reported, with what foundation I never 
knew, that he used all possible influence with the authori- 
ties of the invading army under General Grant to prevail 
upon them to j^revent the soJdiers from destroying the Uni- 
versity property when they took possession of Oxford in 
1862. Be that as it may, it is a fact that the fine appoint- 
ments of the Observatory, the collections, cabinets, and in- 
struments, and the libraries, with the buildings, were less 



Frederick A. P. Barnard, LL. D., D. D. 285 

disturbed and molested by the northern army than those of 
many other Southern colleges ; indeed, little or no damage 
■^vas inflicted upon the institution by the soldieiy. Let jus- 
tice be meted out to Dr. Barnard in view of all that he was 
instrumental in effecting in the way of scientific and literary 
work. 

He raised Columbia College from the status of "a 
highly respectable and old-fashioned " American institution 
to the rank of a "modern university." The following ex- 
tract, WTitten since his death, and published in the journals 
of the time, will demonstrate his successful w^ork truly and 
briefly ; 

" Under President Barnard's regime, the college proper, 
the Academic Department, doubled its strength, and more 
than doubled its usefulness ; but this department has been 
overshadowed by the development of the University schools, 
which have grown up about it." And while it is true that 
" The School of Mines " was in existence when he entered 
upon the presidency, yet it is stated by the same writer 
that ''where, in 1864, less than thirty students pursued 
their studies in a cellar, this school has grown, largely 
through President Barnard's fostering care, into one of the 
largest, best equipped, and most celebrated schools of ap- 
phed science in the world." Besides all this, "the law 
school has quadrupled in numbers" and efficiency. The 
medical school is also part of the system, and the higher 
education of women is to be j^rovided for by the establish- 
ment of an annex — the Barnard College for Women." Ac- 
cording to a recent catalogue of the college, there were in 
the various faculties connected with it more than one him- 
dred professors and assistants, and something like sixteen 
hundred students. 

It is a touching incident related in regard to his funeral. 
After the most impressive public services had been con- 
ducted by the authorities of the college and church in New 



28(; John N. VVaddel, D. D., LL. D. 

York, liiHrcinaiiiH AV(n-o bonio to liin iiativo villaf^o, Sliciridd, 
and buried iluin^, niivv funeral B(!rvi(u) had bocsn bold in tlio 
the little clmrch which liad booji iisiid l)y hiiri in his (earlier 
years as his law office. 

"He was the author of various Bcientiiic- and educational 
books. Tlie dej^ree of LL. D. was confcu'red upon him in 
1811, by JcllerHon College, and four years later by Yale; 
the degree of T>. D., by the University of Mississippi ; that 
of L. H. D., by the New Y(n-k University; of D. C. L., by 
King's College, Canada. It is said by the writer from 
whom I have drawn these facts, tliat while "no man is in- 
dispensable, yet Dr. B. was not one of the men who are 

easily re})lace(l It will be hard indeed to fdl the 

phuui which his death h^avcis vacant." 

The following siatcMucnl, is cojued ffom the JVc^in ]\yrk 
Obaerver : 

" Colund)ia College has received a valuable bequest from 
its late President. Dr. ]5arnard left it all his property, ex- 
cept a few personal legacies. His valuable? collection of 
microscopes has been given to tlui School of Mines; his en- 
tire lil)rary, which had Ixhmi selected with great care, has 
been, with the exception of a few books retained l)y Mrs. 
Barnard, addcnl to the Collo<^e library. Tcni thousand dol- 
lars have be<!n set apart for lulping scientific r(?S(;arch. 
The bulk of the csiateis to goto Uw, College library, and to 
endow a fund to p(irpetuate i\u) founder's name, ]\Irs. Bar- 
nard receiving the inlci-est while she lives. The fund is ex- 
pected to reach the sum of i{;'5(),O()0." 



I 



CHAPTER XX. 

BkIEF SKETCHE.i OF jMeMBERS OF THE ChARTEKED BoAED. 

THE ori^vinal chartered Board of Trustees consisted of 
thirteen, who were elected by the State Senate, ui:>ou 
the general principle of representation of various sections of 
the State, so as to interest the whole of the citizens as far as 
possible in the University, allowing three to the town of Ox- 
ford, as the selected site of the institution. The list will be 
found on a preceding page, and a brief sketch of each will 
be here given ; 

1. Hon. J. A. Ventress, from Woodville, Miss., was a gen- 
tleman of scholarly attainments, and was educated in Ger- 
many. 

2. Hon. John Anthony Quitman was born in New York, 
and won the enviable reputation of being universally re- 
garded one of Mississippi's noblest public men. He was a 
distinguished lawyer, and a prominent leader in the Demo- 
cratic party, and equally distinguished in the Mexican war, 
and always a devoted friend of the University. 

3. Hon. A\illia:,i L. Sharkey needs only to be named in 
any company of Mississippians to secure the homage of ad- 
miration and respect for him as a profound jurist and a 
large-hearted, high-toned nobleman of nature. 

4. Hon. E. C. Wilkinson, eminent as a lawyer, a judge, 
and a pubHcist. I cannot dismiss this name without recall- 
ing a fact illustrative of his character as a gentleman ol 
high and generous principles and motives of action. By 
reference to his course, as recorded on a preceding page in 
the discussion of the College curriculum, and the other'pre- 
hminaries needful to bo settled in order to a proper order- 

287 



288 John K Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

ing and arrangement of tlie future career of the University 
as an institution of the higher learning, it will be brought 
to mind that Judge Wilkinson boldly and earnestly assumed 
the position — first, that the Evidences of Christianity should 
be excluded from the course of study; second, that no Pro- 
fessorship should be filled by a clergyman of any denomina- 
tion. When the Board decided against his views in both of 
these particulars, he openly declared that he should cease 
to feel interested in the University, and it was supposed 
that he would never apj^ear on the campus in the ofiicial ca- 
pacity of a trustee; but as the Universit}' became highly 
prosperous and universally popular, he was present during 
a Commencement occasion, and in zealous discharge of hi& 
duties as a trustee, having abandoned his opposition, and in 
the most candid manner acknowledged that he was in error. 
In a pleasant interview with him, he remarked to me that 
he regarded the jorosperity of the institution as resulting 
from the fact that, of its Faculty, the ministers were the 
most useful and efficient instruments. 

5. Col. John J. McCaughan figured largely in the finan- 
cial history of Mississippi. He w^as a pronounced infidel, 
and resigned his membership of the Board because of their 
action in connecting religion and its ministers with its prac- 
tical system. 

6. Bev. F. L. Hawks, D. D., was a polished scholar, a re- 
fined Chrictian gentleman, an eloquent orator. He was a 
distinguished minister of the Episcopal Church, and author 
of a history of North Carolina. He was once a resident of 
Holly Springs, and a nominal presiding officer of a classical 
academy in that town, and afterwards was called to a church 
in Now York. He was made a Bishop, but died without en- 
tering upon the discharge of the duties of the office. 

7. Hon. A. H. Pegues was born in South Carolina, and for 
many years was prominent in the councils of the State of 
Mississippi as a Senator. He served the University with 



Trustees of the University. 289 

marked fidelity as a trustee for sixteen j^ears. He was a 
citizen of the county of Lafayette, and held a high place in 
the esteem of his fellow-citizens on account of his patriotic 
devotion to the true interests of his country. He i^assed 
away universally lamented, in the full communion of the 
Episcopal Church. 

8. Hon. William Y. Gholson was appointed by the Senate 
a trustee from Aberdeen, Miss., but removed from the State 
at an early period, and died in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

9. Hon. Alexander M. Clayton, as I learn from a memo- 
rial card published after his death, was a native of Virginia, 
January 19, 1801, and died in Benton county, Miss., Sep- 
tember 30, 1889, in his eighty-ninth year. He had been a 
devoted faithful public servant of his countiy in many ca- 
pacities from his early manhood. He was a judge in Ar* 
kansas when it was a Territory; then, successively. Justice 
of the High Court of Errors and Appeals of Mississippi for 
nine years; Consul to Havana under President Pierce; 
drafted the Secession ordinance when Mississippi severed 
her connection with the Enited States ; Confederate States 
judge under appointment of President Davis. After the 
war between the States he was elected judge to the Circuit 
Court, and served in that office until he was removed by 
Governor Ames, during the times of the reconstruction of 
Mississippi and the other Southern States. 

Judge Clayton was always a devoted friend of the Uni- 
versity, and was always present at its meetings, anxious and 
zealous for its welfare. He was for some years previous to 
his death one of the two surviving members of the char- 
tered Board of Trustees, the other being myself. We met 
in Oxford at the Commencement of 1889, and within three 
months thereafter, " when the summons came, he laid his 
burden down, and, in the peacefulness of the hope of a glo- 
rious resurrection, passed through death to immortal life.'* 
Eull of years, he was laid in his grave, without a spot upon 
19 



290 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

tlie brightness of his honor, and lamented Ijy all who knew 
him. 

10. Hon. Jacob Thompson was born in North Carolina, 
and was graduated from the University of that State at 
Chapel Hill. He held the office of tutor in that institution, 
but removed at a comparatively early age to Mississippi, and 
established himself as an attorney at law in the northern 
part of the State, and spent many years of his life in the 
town of Oxford ; Avas an active trustee until his removal to 
Memphis, in 1864. During his residence in Mississippi, 
and his membershix? of the Board, he was active, zealous, 
and devoted to the duties of trustee. He was long a mem- 
ber of Congress, and was Secretary of the Interior in Mr. 
Buchanan's cabinet. He was singled out as an arch-rebel 
by the Federal government, and charged by the voice of 
public sentiment of the North with many accusations of 
treason and disloyalty, which were utterly false, and origi- 
nated from the extreme madness and ignorance of the peo- 
ple, as well as the unscruj^ulous malignity of the party in 
power. Mr. Thompson spent his last years in Memphis, in 
l^rivate life, possessed of great wealth, and passed away 
among devoted friends, and surrounded by his own family, 
after having reached more than the allotted period of hu- 
man life, threescore and ten years. He was a member of 
the Episcopal Church for many years before his death, and 
died in that communion. 

11. Of Pryor Le.\, Esq., so little is known to me that I 
am only able to state that he resided in Jackson, and I think 
he was a practitioner of law. He resigned his place on the 
Board in 1846. 

12. Hon. James M. Howry w^as a native of Virginia, his 
birth-place being Botetourt Courthouse, and the time of his 
birth being August 4, 1804. He resided in early life in 
Nashville, Tenn. ; he settled in Oxford, Miss., in 1836, and 
was elected circuit judge of that District in 1841 over two 



Tkustees of the University. 291 

distinguished competitors. He practiced law, after leaving 
the bench, in Oxford, until the year 1860, when he retired, 
with a handsome fortune. Like many other fortunes, this 
was swept away by the rude hand of war throughout the 
South. He was one of the original chartered Board of 
Trustees in 1844, and he served the University vriih. great 
fidelity for more than a quarter century ; he served the 
people in both branches of the Legislature. He died at his 
home, in Oxford, on April 15, 1884, in his eightieth year. 
He was an eminent member of the Masonic fraternity, and 
an elder of the Cumberland Presb3'terian church. His end 
was peace. 



CHAPTEK XXL 

Financial Histoey. 

SOMETHING more minute in detail in reference to the 
financial history of the University than has thus far 
been recorded is now in order, if the true state of the case 
is to be known. I premise by stating- that my authorities 
on this subject are found in the Journals of Congress of 
1819 ; in Hutchinson's Mississippi Code from 1798 to 1848;. 
and in a message of the Hon. John J. McCrae, Governor of 
Mississii)pi, addressed to the Legislature on February 6, 
1856. From these sources the following facts have been 
gathered, viz. : In accordance with an act of Congress of 
February 20, 1819, a township of public land was granted 
to the State of Mississippi for the express purpose of estab- 
lishing a seminary of learning; that the right should be 
vested in the Legislature, in trust, for this purpose ; that 
the Legislature accepted the trust ; that after the selection 
of the lands, which was judiciously made, the State pur- 
sued the j)olicy of leasing them until March, 1833, at which 
time an act of the Legislature was passed, providing for the 
sale of the thirty-six sections ; that the sale was made in 
1833, on one, two and three years' time, and the notes were 
made payable on November 1, 1834, 1835 and 1836, re- 
spectively. The next legislation in regard to this fund, 
which is of importance, is that recorded in the eleventh 
section of " An Act for the Collection and Investment of 
the Seminary Fund," w^hereby it is made the "duty of the 
State Treasurer to credit the University Fund with interest 
at the rate of five per cent. j)er annum, upon all moneys 
heretofore paid into the treasury, from the time when so 

292 



Financial History. 293 

paid to the passage of the act; and, thereafter, to credit 
said fund with interest at the rate of eight i)er cent, per 
annum upon all moneys due from the State to said Fund." 
Upon this subject there has been a great deal of discus- 
sion and feehng on the part of many, and the question has 
been extensively debated even of late years. It will be my 
object, under this state of the case, to record only the facts 
of history, together with their natural and legitimate infer- 
ences. Accordingly, it is a well-known fact that, after the 
sale of these lands, and during the crisis consequent upon 
the wild and reckless financial management of the State, 
very nearly all the j^roceeds of these sales were lost, the rem- 
nant saved from the wreck amounting to less than two hun- 
dred thousand dollars ! 

Again, I quote next from the message of His Excellency, 
Governor McKae in 1856, these words, viz. : " By appl^dng 
the rule laid down in this law to the ascertainment of the 
condition of the fund on the 1st of January, 1856, it is dis- 
covered that the sum due from the State to the Uni- 
versity Fund was at that time $1,077,790.07. The Governor 
then proceeds to deduct the appropriations made from time 
to time by the Legislature for the establishment and sup- 
port of the University, computing interest upon those ad- 
vances by the same rule as had been followed in computing 
interest upon the fund itself. The amount of these appro- 
priations, with interest added as above computed, reached 
the sum of $203,465.58, which, deducted from $1,077,- 
790.07, leaves as the actual sum due seventeen years ago, 
$874,324.49. 

This calculation, I very well remember, was made by my 
immediate predecessor, Dr. F. A. P. Barnard, at that time 
Professor of Mathematics, whose skill in such calculations 
no one ever doubted. This state of facts was made to the 
Legislature, but that body persistently refused to acknow- 
ledge the indebtedness of the State to the University to 



294 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

that amount. The utmost that could be obtained from the 
Lee-islciture was the recoofnition of the sum of less than 
$200,000, referred to above, on which the State had been 
paying interest, amounting to about $11,500 per annum. 

From an article contributed to a magazine in 1856, pub- 
lished by the students of the University, before the war, 
the author of which, I think, was not given at the time 
(yet know^n to me), I quote the following, and of the truth- 
fulness of its statements there is no doubt : 

"• To the honor of the Board of Trustees then in office, a 
bill was prepared and introduced into the State Senate, 
acknowledging this amount, of $874,324.49, as due to the 
University from the State, when, forthwith, opposition of 
such a character was manifested as to induce its friends to 
accept a poor substitute, and to withdraw the original tem- 
porarily. The substitute passed the Senate, no one dissent- 
ing, but when it reached the House it encountered a fierce, 
bitter, and ahnost malignant opposition. After a long and 
arduous struggle, however, it was passed by that body by a 
majority of two, and received the signature of the Governor. 
The amount thus appropriated, $20,000 annually, and was 
accepted by the Trustees, very properly, under protest. 
The Legislature considered this only as an appropriation, 
and not by any means an acknowledgment that the State 
was under the slightest obligation to pay, either principal or 
interest, of the debt claimed by the Trustees. The Board, 
on their part, did not ask for on appropriation, they only 
demanded the payment of a just and lawful debt. 

In my capacity of a chronicler of the history of this insti- 
tution, I record, as the next fact which marks its financial 
life, that since the war, at a time when the University was 
in great need, a similar effort was made by the Board of 
Trustees to obtain an acknowledgment of the States's in- 
debtedness to the institution, which was again defeated, and 
in lieu thereof, a similar appropriation of $20,000 per annum 



Financial History. 295 

then was nominally granted. During my term of service as 
Chancellor a calculation was carefully prepared by my 
esteemed and distinguished colleague, L. C. Garland, LL. D., 
at my request, which makes the indebtedness of the State 
to the University at that time over a million and a half 
of dollars, after deducting all appropriations. I may just 
here make the history of this subject complete, in so far 
as my personal connection with it is concerned, by stating- 
the following fact, which occurred after the war, during the 
mihtary and provisional government of Mississippi, usually 
denominated in political circles " The Carpet-Bag Dynasty.'* 
During the term of service of the Hon. James L. Alcorn as 
Governor, and when the Legislature was overwhelmingly 
" Radical " in its political complexion, the affairs of the Uni- 
versity engaged a large share of the attention of the Legis- 
lature, and, with other of its interests, the material aid and. 
support of its practical work was much discussed. The 
Governor being a Southern man by birth and interest, was, 
in my judgment, a true friend of the University, when 
others of different professions gave him no credit for the 
possession of any such feelings. At all events, he recom- 
mended to the Legislature the passage of a bill appropriat- 
ing the sum of $50,000 annually for ten years to the sup- 
port of the University, and in the body of the act it is care- 
fully inserted that this is in lieu of the annual appropriatiou 
made by law for the adequate support of the University. 
The question was raised whether this includes the $11,500 
annual interest on the remnant of the debt saved out of the 
financial wreck of the original indebtedness, w4iich was also 
acknowledged in 1844, or whether it refers only to the 
$20,000 of which the University had been the recipient for 
many years by appropriation. The latter was undoubtedly 
the true and just construction to be placed upon this clause 
of the act. 

I have thus placed on record so much of the financial his- 



296 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

lory of the University as had actually been realized during" 
the term of my service as Chancellor. But a few additional 
iacts cognate to this subject will be here submitted, in order 
that the whole may be presented at once and an intelligent 
view may be taken of the matter. 

The a^Dpropriation of $50,000 per annum seemed at the 
time so ample for all purposes, and so munificent withal, 
that at a meeting of the Board of Trustees subsequently a 
resolution was passed by which the tuition fee (only $50) 
was abolished, throwing the halls of the University open to 
the free access of all Mississippi students. This, though 
done wdth the very best intentions, proved, in its practical 
working, to be somewhat disastrous to the finances of the 
University. 

To go back a few years, it is known that previous to the 
war the income from all sources amounted to about $40,000 
in cash, and very frequently in gold. After the war, for 
•.some years, the same amount was generally realized from 
the same sources, viz. : 

1. Interest of the acknowledged debt $11,500 

2. Api^ropriations, including Law Department, 22,000 

3. Tuition fees, say 8,000 



$41,500 
Now% although the income had become nominally $50,000, 
it was paid in State warrants, at a discount of twenty -five to 
thirty per cent., the State loses $12,500 to $15,000 annually; 
so that the $50,000 only ga^^e to the University $37,500, and 
often $35,000, less by $4,000 to $G,000 than it was before the 
appropriation had been made. Obviously thus, at that time, 
the abolition of the tuition fee operated to the damage of 
the University. 

A consideration has been urged against the recognition of 
the indebtedness of the State, and the consequent obligation 
to pay the annual interest, and that is, the poverty/ of the 



FiNANCL^L History. 297 

people. The fact may be admitted, and yet the debt may 
be acknowledged. A part was acknowljedged at the outset, 
and interest was regularly paid over to the trustees for 
years. If the State owed any part, it owed the whole ; if it 
be a just debt, the State had no right to repudiate one dol- 
lar of it upon the simple plea of poverty. The whole debt 
might long since have been acknowledged, and a rate per 
cent, decided upon that would have been reasonable, and 
wdiich the people would have been abundantly able to pay. 
Even four per cent, on the entii'e amount would have yielded 
$65,000 or $70,000, a sum amply sufficient to have met the 
necessities of the University, and entirely within the re- 
sources of the great State of Mississippi. 

Let one remark be added to all that has been written 
"thus far. The University was not endowed by the State, but 
its endowment was furnished by the Congress of the United 
States. The State, by its Legislatui-e, is declared to be 
merely the trustee of the fund. It was accepted on the con- 
dition that it was to be managed for the benefit of a semi- 
nary of learning. Coming to the facts of history, it appears 
that not even the interest has been paid. It is, therefore, 
not one of the schools that are su-Di3orted by taxation in the 
proper sense of the word. 

At the close of my administration, in 1874, the debt re- 
mained in the same unrecognized condition. It was, how- 
ever, pressed ceaselessly by the trustees upon the considera- 
tion of the Legislatm-e ; and as there w^ere several prominent 
alumni of the University members of the Board and of the 
Legislature, it is gratifying to learn that the authorities of 
the State were finally prevailed upon to acknowledge the in- 
debtedness of the State in the sum of $544,061.23, by the 
income of which the institution is supported in a manner far 
more in accordance with the claims of such an establishment 
than it has ever been before. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Statistical Statements. 

TO resume the regular statement of the progress of the 
University, we may now briefly record some of the sta- 
tistics connected with its affairs. It began its prosperous 
career from the auspicious period of the accession to office 
of the second President, the eminent and beloved Long- 
street ; for although the number in attendance during the 
second session (which was the first of his administration) 
was small, j^et in all the elements of true prosperity, in or- 
derly deportment, diligent application, and successful intel- 
lectual progress on the part of the students ; in fidelity and 
success on the part of the Faculty, the institution was far in 
advance of its status during the first session. The patron- 
age of the University during the actual operation of its 
work can only be accounted for upon the fact that the con- 
fidence of the people of the State had been steadily increas- 
ing. The following is a condensed statement of the number 
in attendance during its successive sessions. It must be re- 
membered that the Law Department w^as not put into actual 
operation until 1854, and the number of students previous 
to that year and to the year 1856-'57 is credited only to the 
Department of Arts. The number of students registered 
during the first session, in 

1848-'49 80 

1849-'50 76 

1850--'51 134 

1851-'52 144 

1852-'53 130 

1853-54 158 

298 



University Statistics. 299> 

1854-'55 173 

1855-'56 225 

1856-'57 264— lu the Law Department 10 

1857-'58 178 " " " 17 

1858-'59 168 " " " 12 

1859-60 216 " " " 13 

1860-'61 226 " " " 29 

1861 " " " 19 

This brings the statement of patronage to the opening of 
the war in 18G1, when the exercises of the University were 
suspended until October 2, 1865. During these four disas- 
trous years the history of the University has httle to attract 
interest. Professors Quinche and Hilgard had, in some 
nominal way, charge of the grounds, buildings and appara- 
tus of all kinds. But one fact may be recorded as extraor- 
dinary in the stoiy of similar invasions by a victorious foe, 
and even where the military bodies may not be hostile. 
The fact to which I here allude is, that although the large 
body of General Grant's arm}'- were encamped around Ox- 
ford, on the campus, the buildings being occupied, to some 
extent, by officers and private soldiers, for some time during 
the w^inter of 1862, the amount of damage that was done, 
as the result of this occupancy, was far less than was appre- 
hended. True, some injury was inflicted upon the sur- 
roundings, but by the overruling kindness of Divine Provi- 
dence in protecting the interests of the University, it was 
made an exceptional case, widely differing from the fate of 
other institutions of learning in the South ; as it was more 
frequently than otherwise the case that dire disaster fol- 
lowed the line of march of the enemy wherever it led them 
in the neighborhood of such institutions, from which, in some 
cases, they never recovered. Accordingly, when the war 
closed, and the foot of the invader no longer trod the soil of 
the South, the University was found to be almost intact, and 
ready to pursue its assigned career as tho leading school of 
the State for the instruction of its youth. 



300 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

We may resume the statistical statements by anticipation 

and dismiss that topic. 

The attendance in the first session after the close of the 

war was in 

1865-'GG 193— lu the Law Scliool ...' — 

1866-'G7 246 1 

1867-68 231 24 

1868-'69 214 13 

1869-70 208 15 

1870-71 120 6 

1871-72 260 3 

1872-73 302 11 

1873-74 208 14 

It will appear, from the list just given, that two of the 
sessions show the number in attendance to have been under 
two hundred, and one of them (1870-71) to be exceedingly 
diminished. This admits of easy explanation. The ses- 
sion during which there were in attendance 193 students, 
was the first session after the close of the war, when the 
whole State was reduced to distressing poverty, and the 
means of the people at large had been so utterly exhausted 
that it could not possibly be exj)ected that the University 
could be very extensively patronized. It was indeed a most 
gratifying surprise to its friends that the patronage attained 
the high figures of 193 at such a time of distress in its 
23ecuniary condition. As to the session of 1870-'71, the 
small number, 120, is accounted for very easily and natu- 
rally from the fact that it occurred during the existence of 
w^hat is known as the Provisional Government of the State, 
or what is more easily remembered, the " Carpet-Bag Gov- 
ernment," when there was a general or widely extended ap- 
prehension prevailing among the people that colored stu- 
dents w^ere to be forced upon the University. This state of 
feeling, however, did not continue long, as the theory to 
make the University a mixed school was never carried into 
effect, so the very next session the number reached 260. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Changes and Additions in the FacuxiTy fbom Time to Time. — Dan- 
ville Theological Seminaby. — Other Changes in the Coubsb 
OF Study, and Other Facts, 

IN the year 1853 occurred the first resignation of office in 
the Facility. Dr. John Milhngton, ^vho was Professor of 
Chemistry and Natural Philosophy in the fii'st Faculty, ten- 
dered his resignation of the offioe, after having held the 
chair only five years, during which he had served the Uni- 
versity with fidelity and zeal, and established a character of 
unblemished purity, and had won the affections of all who 
had been his associates, w^h ether in the Faculty, among the 
students, or in the community around him. He had been 
called to occupy the Professorship of Chemistry and Toxi- 
cology in the Memphis Medical College, then in its incipient 
existence. The sequel of his life and labors is given in a 
preceding chapter. 

In the succeeding year (1854) Dr. A. T. Bledsoe resigned 
the Professorship of Mathematics and Astronomy, and en- 
tered upon the duties of the same chair in the Faculty of 
the University of Virginia, succeeding Professor Courtenay, 
deceased. 

Dr. Bledsoe's vacancy was immediately filled by the elec- 
tion of F. A. P. Barnard, D. D., LL. D., who was then fill- 
ing a chair in the University of Alabama. Dr. Barnard re- 
mained incumbent of this chair in Mississij)pi until 1856, 
when he was elected to the Presidency of the University 
upon the resignation of Dr. Longstreet. He filled this po- 
sition as President until 1859. After this year he served 
under the title of Chancellor until 1861, at which time he 

301 



302 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

resigned the j^osition, on the outbreak of the civil war, and 
returned to the North, as already related. 

This is the proper place, I think, to record an event of 
some interest and importance in my life, and to which I 
sometimes recur, as affording me much honest gratification. 
I do not believe that it ministered to any increase of vanity 
or self-conceit, for the simple and sufficient reason that the 
honor conferred was one which, strictly speaking, I did not 
deserve, since my conscience assured me that, at the time of 
my election, I was much better qualified to teach Latin and 
Greek than to fill the chair of Pastoral Theology and Church 
Polity in a Theological Seminary. 

It was at the meeting of the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church in Buffalo, N. Y., in the year 1854, 
seven years previous to the disruption of the church which 
occurred in consequence of the civil war, that I received, by 
unanimous election of that body, the Professorship of Pas- 
toral Theology and Church Polity in the recently-organized 
Theological Seminary at Danville, Ky. No intimation of 
such a state of things being in prospect had been communi- 
cated to me, and the intelligence of this action of the Assem- 
bly was sudden and unexpected. Many were the communi- 
cations received by me from official and other sources of the 
fact. But I was not long in doubt as to the course to be 
pursued under the circumstances. I respectfully, but most 
positively, declined to accept the position tendered me so 
lionorably by the Assembly. My reasons were based upon 
several grounds, any one of which appeared to me to be 
valid and sufficient. In a general sense, I felt a reluctance 
to leave the South, to go even so far north as Danville. I 
felt, too, that the field in which I was then laboring was one 
full of promise of great usefulness before me. I was known, 
and had already succeeded in securing the cordial esteem 
and attachment of a large constituency in my work for the 
people of the State, and I felt greatly attached to them. 



Called to other Spheres of Labor 303 

Besides all this, the work of instruction in which I was 
serving- the public at Oxford was that for which I felt my- 
self more competent, as I had S2:>ent my life, in large mea- 
sure, in that form of teaching ; that I had never turned my 
mind to the subjects required to be taught in that Profes- 
sorship so as to be accomplished sufficientl}^ to fill the chair 
to the credit or benefit either of myself or of the Seminary. 
For these reasons, while I felt truly grateful to my brethren 
for the high consideration which led them to confer upon 
me the honor of such a distinction, I felt constrained to de- 
cline its acceptance. 

In the appendix to this memoir the correspondence upon 
this subject is given in full, if any one may desire to read 
it. I did feel honored by it, as the vote by which I was 
elected was joractically unanimous, and such men as Robert 
J. Breckinridge, Edward P. Humj^hrey, John T. Edgar, and 
J. E. C. Doremus, R. B. McMullen and James Park, and 
many others, wrote urging me to accept the office. Never- 
theless, I felt that I could not conscientiously accept it at 
the time, and considered my reasons th e7i strong and satis- 
factory. I have, I think, great cause of thankfulness 7iow 
when I review the subsequent history of events that have 
passed throughout this region of country, that I was di- 
vinely guided in this decision, and guarded from doing that 
for which I should have been led into troubles not then 
foreseen, but which have since been fully developed. 

That I might have accomphshed myself, by hard study, 
to fill that chair, I did not doubt, but be it remembered 
that I would have found myself, at the very outset, sur- 
rounded by an atmosphere of theological learning and criti- 
cal acumen from which I could not expect to escape criticism, 
and to which I did not desire to expose myself, accompa- 
nied by whatsoever fraternal charity on the part of others. 
I was unwilling, therefore, to exchange a work for which I 
had prepared myself by years of hard and incessant appli- 



304 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

cation and practice in the impartation of instruction to stu- 
dents, and in which I was giving satisfaction, for one which 
■was to be subjected to an ordeal so severe. 

In the year 1856, after I had filled the Professorship of 
Ancient Languages for eight years, the Board of Trustees 
decided to separate the joint chair into the two Professor- 
ships of "Greek Language and Literature," and of "Latin 
and Modern Languages." The privilege of making a choice 
of these two languages, that which I preferred, was granted 
me by the Board, and I, accordingly, selected the Greek, 
and filled this chair only one year, making my first term of 
service in the Faculty of the University just nine years. 
My work was T)y no means light while serving in the first 
arrangement of instructing all the classes in both languages. 
This I kept up during seven years, from 1848 to 1855, at 
which time the Board appointed as a tutor in this depart- 
ment, George Tucker Stainback, who was a young preacher 
of ability in tlio Cnmberland Presbyterian church, and who 
had been graduated with distinction in the (rlass of 1854. 
On the separation of Greek and Latin, and my being as- 
signed to the chair of Greek, Mr. Stainback left the Faculty, 
and the Trustees appointed as my tutor, AVm. Alexander 
Eakin, who had been a classmate of Mr. Stainback's, and 
who had graduated with the highest honors of his class. 
I will add just here, that Mr., or (as he afterwards became) 
Dr. Eakin, had been, when quite a boy, a pupil of mine in 
the Montrose Academy, and from his early youth to the day 
of his untimely death, he was among the most unexcep- 
tional)le characters with whom I was ever associated. We 
were together again in the Synodical College at La Grange, 
Tenn., and although he had attended a regular course of 
medical lectures, and had been a practicing physician, he 
considered it his duty to enter the ministry. Such was his 
modesty and humble estimate of himself, that he said to me 
once, that he felt as though he was only fit to preach, if at 



Changes in the Faculty. 305 

all, to the colored people. But just while he was studying' 
the subject prayerfulty, and before he had taken a decided 
step in the direction of the ministry, it pleased the great 
Head of the church to call him away to a scene of higher 
service above. He died in 1861. 

The changes which occurred in the University Faculty 
before the w^ar, and up to the time of my resignation, iu 
1857, consisted of the organization of a chair of Metaphj^s- 
ics and Ethics, the first incumbent of which was Rev. N. M^ 
Crawford, D. D., a classmate of my own, who was grad- 
uated from the University of Georgia in 1829, and a sketch 
of whose career I have given in a preceding chapter. He 
filled this chair only one year, being called to the Presidency 
of Georgetown College, in Kentucky. This Professorship 
was subsequently filled by Eev. G. W. Carter, D. T>., and by 
Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, LL. D , successively-, until the war of 
1861 -'65. There was also an Instructorship of Modern Lan- 
guages established by the Trustees in 1850, and to this po- 
sition was elected a foreigner, by name Adolph Sadluski, as 
the first incumbent, but whose health was so deplorably 
feeble that he was prevented from ever entering upon the 
work of instruction at all. He was succeeded by a very un- 
suitable man, by na^e William A. Strozzi, also a foreigner, 
who was in office only two years. Both of these men came 
recommended as competent for the position; but perhaps 
there have rarely been found such complete failures as they 
both proved to be. The Board decided to combine the in- 
struction in the modern languages with the Professorship 
of Latin, and in 1851 elected AVilson Gaines Eichardson to 
that chair. Mr. Richardson had been graduated with dis- 
tinction from the University of Alabama, and had filled the 
place of Tutor of Languages in the service of his Alma 
Mater for some time. He had also spent some years in 
France, and had perfected himself in the knowledge of 
Modern Languages. He held the office first of Moderu 
20 



30G John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

Laiio'uao-es alone for two years, and after the combination 
of Latin languages, in 1856, he served in this chair until 
1859. He was a fine scholar, but did not succeed in the 
management of students. He was successively a member of 
the Faculties of Davidson College, North Carohna, and of 
Central University, Kentucky, and of Austin College, Sher- 
man, Texas. In his later years he entered the Presbyterian 
ministry, and died after a brief service in that sphere of 
effort. He had charge of but one field of ministerial labor, 
and his churches were greatly pleased with him as a minis- 
ter and his work was fruitful of good results, and he passed 
away deeply lamented. 

There was also established previous to my resignation a 
School of Governmental Science and Law in 1854, and to 
this chair was called, as the first Professor, William F. 
Stearns, LL, D., a very prominent and eminent lawyer, who 
was a Northern man by birth, but had spent many years in 
Mississippi in the practice of his profession. He held the 
office with great efficienc}^ as an instructor until 1861, when 
the exercises of the University were suspended. He com- 
mitted suicide after the war. 

The vacancy in Dr. Millington's chair was occupied very 
briefly and very inefficiently by a minister of the Baptist 
Church, Eev. J. C, Keeney. He was elected in 1853, and 
resigned, by request, in 1854. His class was one consisting 
of young men of rather extraordinary intelligence, and his 
want of qualification was so excessive as to be obvious upon 
slight test in his lecture-room, and this led to the resolu- 
tion, on the part of the class, to invite him to resign. He 
declined the invitation of the young gentlemen, but at the 
ensuing meeting of the Board of Trustees he became con- 
vinced that " discretion was the better part of valor," and he 
decided to succumb. 

His place was filled in 1856 by the appointment of Capt. 
E. C. Boynton, a graduate of West Point, who held the 



Changes ix the Faculty. 307 

office before the war until the suspension of the exercises 
of the University of Mississippi, when he returned to the 
North. He was an accomplished chemist, but a profane 
swearer, and under provocation gave full vent to his irrita- 
tion in words unbecoming any man under any circum- 
stances, but far more unbecoming an instructor of youth. 

On my resignation of the chair of the "Greek Language 
and History of Greek Literature," the vacancy was filled by 
the election of Professor Henry Whitehorn, A. M., in 1857, 
which he filled until the occ.u-rence of the war, when he 
also went North. My acquaintance with him was very 
sHght. I only knew he was an Enghshman, and had been 
teaching in Holly Springs some time. As to his accomplish- 
ments as a Greek scholar I had no knowledge ; but I was 
impressed by a little incident that occurred in my lecture- 
room just previous to his election. Being on a visit to Ox- 
ford, he called at m.y room very naturally, in order to ascer- 
tain my mode of instruction. It was my custom to teach pro- 
sody in all the poetical authors read by the students in both 
languages. As the class was pursuing the study of some one 
of the Greek tragedians, not now recollected, I practiced 
them in the scansion of the lines in the trimeter verse. At 
the close of the hour he volunteered the remark that "if 
it was expected that he would teach prosody, it must be un- 
derstood beforehand he would not do it." I learned after- 
wards that when he went North he was made Greek Profes- 
sor in Union College, Schenectady, N. Y. 

Other professors held office during my ante-bellum term 
of service, and up to the time of the war. Among them, I 
recall the name of Lewis Harper, who was placed in the 
chair of "Agriculture and Geological Science." He was a 
German, and the degree of LL. D. had been conferred 
upon him by some unknown authority, but he seemed to 
take pecuhar delight in appending it to his name on all oc- 
casions. 



308 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

He disappeared from our circle after serving two years 
— from 1854 to 185G. He was located somewhere in the 
Northern States after leaving the University. 

On the promotion of Dr Barnard to the Presidency, 
Jordan M. Phipps, who had passed successfully through the 
University classes from 1848 to 1851, and having earned 
high position among the graduates, and had been appointed 
Adjunct Professor of Mathematics in 1852, now succeeded 
to the full Professorship of Mathematics in 1856. He held 
the office also until 1861. Professor Phipps w-as, after the 
cessation of hostilities, an attorney-at-law and Mayor of 
Oxford. My last knowledge of him is that he was a citizen 
of Florida. He was a quiet, unassuming gentleman, and 
■was much esteemed as a faithful and competent teacher. 

There were in service of the University before the war, 
only two adjunct professors, both of Mathematics. There 
were, however, eight tutors during the same period, but 
how they were distributed among the departments is not 
recorded. 

This brings the history of the University down to the 
opening of the civil war. 



CHAPTEE XXIY. 

Eeview of Peiyate and Domestic Histoey feom 1848 to 1857. 

AT the time of mj election to tlie chair of Ancient Lan- 
guages in the University of Mississippi, in 1848, mine 
-was a family circle consisting of the beloved wife of my 
youth, who for sixteen years had been the light and joy of 
my home. She had been the sharer of my bright and pros- 
perous days, the sympathizing comforter of the many sea- 
sons of my gloom arising from changes of fortune that have 
been referred to in this record. She had felt, with me, the 
heavy burden of parental grief in the death of two lovely 
little boys just as they were growing more and more win- 
ning and attractive, and we Avere still the happy parents of 
four children, two daughters and two sons. Mary Eobert- 
son, whose birth has been recorded on page — of this me- 
moir, and who was now our eldest living child, as Moses, our 
first-born, had died in 1839, and John Newton, our fourth 
child, had passed away in 1846. ]\Iary was now eleven 
years of age, and had always been remarkable for her fond- 
ness for books and perseverance in pursuing- with earnest- 
ness all those studies w4iich are ordinarily adopted in the 
best training-schools, even though for some of them she 
might not have manifested any considerable native taste or 
talent. As an illustration of this, she certainly was not 
naturally a musician, but she did not hesitate for a moment 
to embrace the fine opportunity aftbrded her of pursuing 
with ardor the study of music ; so that she became profi- 
cient as a performer, and was thoroughh' acquainted with 
the principles of the science. As she afterwards became a 
teacher, she had a number of pupils in this dehghtful 

309 



310 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. T>. 

study, and, as in every other department of her course of 
instruction, she was always successful as a teacher. Her 
career may form the subject of a future chapter. 

The other little girl, Elizabeth Woodson Pleasants, was 
born on June IG, 1840, at our Alabama home, and was now 
in her ninth year. She was a very timid and sweet-tem- 
pered child, and had inherited her mother's gentleness and 
her intellectual brightness. These two, wdth their two lit- 
tle brothers, George Robertson, named for his maternal 
grandfather, nearly four years old, and John Gray, called 
for Rev. Dr. John H. Gray, of Memphis, who married my 
wife's sister Jane. Then, to render our circle complete, 
the mother of my wife, and the grandmother of these chil- 
dren, Mrs. Mary Collier, was also an honored and beloved 
member of our household. 

It was under such circumstances of domestic prosperity 
and comfort that I entered upon the discharge of my 
professional duties. I was in my thirty-seventh year, in 
fine health, and with a bouyant spirit, which, although, 
rather easily depressed, was as easily restored to its normal 
tone. "When I review that period of my life, after long 
years of vicissitudes since experienced, it seems to me that 
I was then just so situated as to enjoy life in the sense of 
enjoyment, as that word should be understood by a rational 
being. I had a happy family, a wide circle of attached 
friends, who watched my new career with profound interest 
and kindly anticipations of my future success. I was sur- 
rounded also with all those outside circumstances calculated 
to advance and to facilitate my progress, a competent salary, 
and a comfortable home. 

As I have not referred to my finances minutely for a con- 
siderable space, I will take leave of that subject just here by 
stating that my remnant of indebtedness for Alabama lands 
was still unsettled when I entered upon my term of service 
at Oxford ; but by the kindness of my friend, Mr. William 



PoLITICAi:- EXCITEMFNT. 311 

M. Lewis, then of Gainesville, himself a member of the 
Land Company which held my promissory notes, I was 
enabled to make an honorable compromise of the entire 
amount of my liabilities and to settle it on terms perfectly 
easy and satisfactory. Thus, by a kind Providence, I was 
enabled to find myself, in due time, relieved of the whole 
debt which had burdened my heart and life as a horrid in- 
cubus for so many dreary years. I was then free from all 
such incumln-ances for an interval of years, and was only 
brought under financial pressure again by the misfortunes 
which fell upon the South, resulting from the issues of the 
w^ar of 1861 -'65. These come into review in their proper 
place, and to them no allusion need be made further for the 
present. 

Things moved on wdth comparative smoothness in the 
University, and nothing that need be related here occurred 
beyond the preservation of the even tenor of our way as an 
institution of learning. The ordefly deportment of the 
student body was commendable, as a general thing, and the 
discipline of the University would comj)are favorably with 
that of any contemporaneous school of the higher learning. 

In 1850, there was brought into a very great state of ex- 
citement the discussion of slaver}^ growing out of the ques- 
tion before Congress of the admission of California as a 
State, and of New Mexico and Utah as territories. The 
canvass for political elections in ^Mississippi became ex- 
tremely bitter, and the two parties were arrayed against 
each other under the names of Unionists and Disunionists. 
During the progress of the political excitement, much that 
was to be deplored occurred in the State, under the pressure 
of hostile feeling, among which was the assassination of the 
venerable and beloved President of Oakland College, Eev. 
Jeremiah Chamberlain, D. D. There had been held an 
election for members of a State convention in Mississippi, a 
card was published in Port Gibson, asserting that a student 



312 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

had been expelled from Oakland college for expressing Dis- 
union sentiments in a speech. This statement was at once 
contradicted by Dr. Chamberlain and a trustee in a pub- 
lished card. The author of the charge gave as his inform- 
ant an individual of the neighborhood by the name of B . 

"The latter went on the 5th of September to Rodney much 
■excited, and after drinking deeply, left for home, and called 
on his way at Dr. Chamberlain's house. The doctor sus- 
j)ecting nothing, met B. and stood talking with him at the 
gate. Two of the doctor's family — his wife and daughter — - 
sitting on the veranda, heard part of the conversation that 
took place, and that B. called their father repeatedly a liar, 
to which he replied : " That you will have to prove." "Upon 
this Briscoe leaped from his buggy, and with a loaded 
whip felled Dr. C. to the ground twice, and as he rose from 
the second fall, stabbed him to the heart with a bowie- 
knife, and then jumping into his vehicle left the spot. 
'The doctor was just able to get back to the house, and on 
being asked if he was hurt, answ^ered, "I am killed; " fell 
and expired. The death of Dr. C. was universally lamented, 
and the cruelty of the deed struck the community and the 
State with horror and amazement. A vast concourse of 
mourning friends assembled to pay the last tribute to his 
memory on the next day, the 7th of September, as he was 
laid to rest in the college cemetery. A writer who gave an 
account of the dreadful occurrence in a journal, adds the 
following : 

" On the afternoon of the same Sabbath Briscoe was 
found by a negro in a thicket in a dying state, giving every 
indication of having poisoned himself. He lived a few 
hours after being found, and then passed to the bar of his 
Judge." 

I allude to this sad event for the two-fold reason that, 
First, it is a very closely-connected fact with the history of 
education in Mississippi, of which Dr. Chamberlain had 



Called TO Oakland College. 313 

been one of the most distinguished pioneers, and a most 
laborious and successful promoter. Second, his death made 
tL vacancy in an important position, to the supply of which 
ihe Board of Trustees found themselves confronted with 
great difficulty. Only a very brief space of time had 
elapsed after Dr. Chamberlain's death, when I most un- 
expectedly received the following dispatch: "Dr. Chamber- 
lain has been murdered. Will you entertain a proposition 
to become his successor ? " To which I immediately re- 
plied, "I cannot entertain such a proposition. Will write." 

I had many reasons for declining the proposition, which 
need not be mentioned — all of them — but the leading and 
most influential objection wdtli me was, that I shrank from 
the weighty responsibihty which I felt was inseparable 
from the presidency of any college or school of the higher 
learning. This was among the most earnest of many calls 
to induce me to leave the University, but I had no disposi- 
tion to comply with this or any other at that time. 

But this I mention as but an incident of no greater im- 
portance than the evidence it furnishes that I was becoming 
better known as an educator, and was somewhat in demand. 
During this period of my life I was supphdng the Presby- 
terian church in Oxford every Sabbath. My labors as the 
stated supply of that chui'ch commenced soon after my 
arrival, being invited by the session to take charge of it, as 
it had just been made vacant by the dissolution of the pas- 
toral relation existing between the church and Rev. S. I. 
Keid. This was my field of regular labor as a minister of 
the gospel. I, however, frequenth^ spent a Sabbath at 
other jDoints with my brethren and in attendance upon the 
meetings of the Presbytery of Chickasaw, of which I had 
become a member by dismission from the Presbytery of 
Tombeckbee. I also attended the meetings of the Synod of 
Memphis, Chickasaw being one of its constituent Presby- 
teries. This reference to mv ministerial office brinos to 



314 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

mind a fact which seemed at the time to create some dis- 
satisfaction in certain quarters. It will be remembered that 
the President, Dr. Longstreet, was a minister of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church. In this capacity he was very natu- 
rally invited by his brethren to visit them and ^^i'each in 
their churches. He also (as I was in the habit of doing m 
my church), made it a point to attend, when convenient, the 
ecclesiastical meetings of the M. E. Church. But in these 
occasional calls from our place of labor, neither he nor I 
ever absented ourselves from duty for any time that was lost 
to the true interests of the University. Our classes lost no 
appreciable advantage, as we were not absent simulta- 
neously, and, indeed, our visitations abroad among other 
bodies of our brethren and fellow-citizens evidentl}' tended 
to increase the interest of the people of the State and com- 
munities around us in the University. Eut this habit of 
ours, for some reason not exactly known to me, gave offence 
to some member or members of the Board of Trustees, and 
they passed an act at one of their meetings annexing, as a 
penalty to such absences of the members of the Faculty 
during the session a fine of ten dollars for each day so lost 
from duty. The effect of this action of the Board w^as offen- 
sive to Dr. Longstreet, insomuch that he immediately de- 
termined to tender his resignation. I did not regard the 
matter in quite so serious a light, for the reason that it 
would not, in my opinion, ever be enforced, because I was 
convinced that when it became known to the public that 
such an act had been passed, it would be denounced by all 
right-thinking men, and knew that the Board would not 
be willing to defy public sentiment to such an extent. On 
Dr. Long-street's views on the subject being made known to 
an influential trustee, he made such representations to Dr. 
Longstreet as convinced him that the action would not in- 
terfere with the freedom of the Faculty ; and so the matter 
was quieted, and no further provocation being offered, Dr. 



Degree of "D. D." Cokeerred. 315 

Longstreet withdrew his intention to resign. I made no 
demonstrations of any intention of resigning, but was strict 
in keeping an account of my days of absence from the Uni- 
versity, so that, at the close of the summer session, when the 
half of my salary fell due, I presented my claim to the Trea- 
surer for payment, giving the University credit for ten days' 
absence at $10 per day, making $100, which, deducted from 
$1,000, left me entitled to only C'OOO. The Treasurer 
glanced at the paper when I presented it, and, laying it 
aside somewhat lighth^, he paid me the salar}' as usual, 
taking my receipt for one thousand dollars. So ended this 
incident, at one time wearing a rather threatening aspect ; 
but nothing more of fines inflicted for absence was ever 
mentioned. In the 3'ear 1850, when I had been connected 
with the University about two 3'ears, m}' attention was called 
by a friend to a notice published in the Herald, a journal 
edited in Louisville, Ky., by Kev. W. W. Hill, T>. D., stating 
that, at the commencement of the University of Nashville, 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity had been con- 
ferred upon me by the authorities of that institution. This 
printed notice of the honor was the first intimation I had re- 
ceived that such a thing had occurred; nor had I ever 
received the slightest intimation that any of my friends had 
contemplated such a suggestion to the Trustees as bestow- 
ing upon me this distinction. 

But enough of this, and I only add that the man who has 
no more tenable claim to honor and esteem than that which 
is the result of the accidental attainment of a title, or a de- 
gree, is to be pitied. Such distinctions, whether of a civil 
or military, or even ecclsiastical origin, have become of late 
years so plenteous and almost universal as to have lost 
their value, if, indeed, they were ever possessed of much, 
" Act well your part, there all the honor lies ! " 

But it was not the will of my heavenly Father that I should 
live a life of entire freedom from trial and trouble. So, that I 



S16 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

might realize more and more that this Avorld is not the rest 
•of God's people, I was destined soon to reahze another 
•series of afflictivo providences. A sweet Httle boy, sent to 
us in 1849, after passing about one year with us, sickened 
and died. Two years after this, my dear wife, as the result 
of the premature birth of her eighth child, passed away, 
and left our circle in impenetrable gloom. The infant sur- 
vived its entrance into this scene of suffering onl}' thirteen 
hours. Mother and two infant boys lie sleeping in the 
cemetery of College church, near Oxford. " Lovely and 
pleasant in their lives, in their death they were not 
divided ! " Thus passed away one of the truest, jDurest, and 
holiest of her sex. A devoted mother, an affectionate sister 
and daughter, an exemplary and tender wife, an indulgent 
mistress, a conscientious Christian, all the warmest affec- 
tions of her husband, children, mother and sisters were 
•concentrated upon her. Her servants were so attached to 
her that they only needed to know, in order to do her will, 
and there was no service that would have been deemed too 
hard for them to perform for her. For nineteen years we 
had lived together in as much real happiness as is allotted 
to mortals here in this world. Sure am I of one thing, that 
if ever I was unha^jpy in any degree during this period it 
could not be traced directly to her as the originating occa- 
sion. Such inevitable events of an afflictive character as 
occasionally were experiencd, were shared one with another; 
but she never caused me a pang of grief, except when I 
laid her away in her grave. Then it was that I became 
•conscious of the truth of the trite and worn line of the 
poet: "How blessings brighten as they take their flight! " 

These regrets are unavailing now. It is the common ex- 
perience of most of us that we might have done more to 
brighten the lines of the dear departed when we look back 
over the returnless track of past life. 

Time wore on sadly enough with me under these circum- 



Second Markiage. 317 

stances, and I bad now to learn what I had never known 
before, the true meaning of the word loneliness, the loneli- 
ness of the heart ! My professorial coui'se passed on with- 
out any interruption until August, 1854, w^hen, on the 24th 
of that month, I was married to Miss Mary A. Werden, of 
Kichmond, Berkshire county, Mass. This lady had been 
in the South for some years, as a very fine teacher, and had 
been known to my first wife and myself from 1849, and in 
consequence of a peculiar state of her mind in regard to 
the salvation of her soul, she had been the object of our 
kind regard and sympathy. I still continued my services 
as stated supply of the Oxford Presbyterian church, and aa 
she had attended my ministry, she had been much affected 
and very deeply distressed during a season of a revival 
meeting that occurred about that time. I had frequent oc- 
casions to converse and pray with her. She received very 
little comfort from all this intercourse, as her feelings 
seemed profoundly melancholy. She became better satisfied 
however, in process of time, and made a j)ublic profession 
of religion, and connected herself with the Oxford Presby- 
terian church. I w^as impressed with her as a lady of fine 
talents and culture, her piety and the general excellence of 
her character, and after three years we were married. But 
her health, from being frail and delicate, grew worse and 
worse after marriage, bidding defiance to the skill of the 
most eminent physicians South and North, w^hose services I 
could secure. She continued in this condition for over 
seven years, and during these years I had placed her first 
under the care of the then eminent surgeon and specialist, 
Dr. Marion Sims, of New York. Afterwards she was under 
the care of Dr. Parker, of the same city, and all to no pur- 
pose. I finally accomx:)anied her, in the early months of the 
year 1861, to her native place, our design and plan then 
being that she should spend the spring and summers in 
the North and her winters in the South. Soon after her 



318 John N. AVaddel, D D., LL. D. 

arrival in Massachusetts, having seen her comfortably lo- 
cated among- her friends, I returned to our home, and not 
long after this the terrible civil war Ijegan its devastations 
and ravages, and all communication by travel and by mail 
"was stopped between the North and the South, save that a 
single i)age of epistolary intercourse was allowed between 
j^arties, which was first to be submitted to the inspection of 
Federal officers apj)ointed for that purpose. While this 
was better than no interchange of letters, it was unsatisfac- 
tory. Several letters of this kind passed between us during 
18G1, but after one received from her in January, 1802, I 
heard from her no more until, by letters from her friends, 
the intelligence of her death, on the 10th of April, 18G2, 
was received by me long after it occurred. In a letter from 
lier sister I learned that she grew more and more feeble, 
until she ceased to write, and passed away calmly trusting 
in her Saviour. It seemed that in her feebleness she had 
been attacked just three months previous to her death with 
a violent cold, which settled on her lungs and carried her 
off in rapid consumption. 

Of one thing I feel some satisfaction, and that is, she had 
been abundantly provided by me with the necessary funds 
in gold to meet all her wants, and the testimony of her 
friends in our last intercourse is that she lacked for nothing 
whatever. It joleased God in this way to cast this shadow 
of her broken health upon the period of our wedded life. 
But I humbly accept it as among the " all things " that He 
has declared " work together for good" to us. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Establishment of a Chukch College by the Synod of Memphis. — 
Election of a Faculty. — Discussion in Relation to the Loca- 
tion, — Choice of La Grange, Tenn. 

ABOUT this time there had arisen among the people of 
the region now covered by the territory of the Synod 
of Memphis, and embracing the Presbyteries of North- 
western Mississippi and those of Wesi,ern Tennessee, ex- 
tending as far as the northern boundary line separating the 
State from Kentucky, very considerable discussion of a 
scheme for the organization of a college, to be strictly con- 
trolled by the Presbyterian Church. The subject was 
brought before the Synod, and it was known that such an 
institution would be organized at the earliest possible 
period consistent with prudence and favoring prospects. 
The result was that various towns presented proposals to 
the Synod inviting the body to locate the college in their 
midst, and offering inducements to that effect. Among 
those places there were j)rominent the city of Jackson and 
the town of La Grange. The former place had, for many 
years, been the seat of 9 college, which was one of three in- 
stitutions founded by the State of Tennessee, viz., East 
Tennessee University at Knoxville, now known as the Uni- 
versity of Tennessee; Nashville University in the centre, 
and West Tennessee College, at Jackson. This last institu- 
tion was in possession of an endowment of $40,000, which 
was yielding an interest of $2,400, jDunctually and promptly 
paid. It had also been tolerably successful in securing re- 
spectable x^atronage. But being a State institution, it was 
sometimes under a president cf one denomination, and 

319 



320 John N. Waddel, D. D., L L. D. 

again under a different administration. At one time it had 
been under a minister of the Episcopal Church (name now 
forgotten), and at another time under the Eev. James. 
Holmes, D. D., a man of very great reputation as an educa- 
tor, the fruit of whose labors in the field of education are 
still found in every walk of prominent usefulness in the 
land. He was succeeded by Rev. Ch:irIc3S S. Dod, once pas- 
tor of the Presbyterian church in Holly Springs, Miss., a 
gentleman of fino abilities and of considerable experience 
as a college officer. Reference will be made to this institu- 
tion at a subsequent period of this history. Sufficient for 
our present purpose it is, to state that the trustees of the 
"West Tennessee College, at Jackson, proposed to the Synod 
of Memphis to enter into a joint partnership, whereby they 
should furnish to that body the use of their endowment, as 
to the annual interest, and a good building already erected, 
as an inducement to its location in Jackson, upon condition 
that the Synod on its part should raise a like sum of $40,- 
000 as their part of the endowment. In passing, let it be 
noticed that these Trustees did not make this offer of their 
money and other franchises as a gift, but only as a loan, in- 
asmuch as it was a State institution and could not become 
the property of any denomination. 

The proposition from La Grange consisted in the offer of 
a subscription list of $37,500 made by the Masonic frater- 
nity to the Synod, to induce the body to locate the college 
at that place. The Masons had been engaged in endeavor- 
ing to establish a college under their own auspices for 
some time before this enterprise of the Synod was inau- 
gurated. But they had found it a difficult matter to ac- 
complish; and, no doubt, felt that the prestige of the 
church would greatly facilitate the object in view, and that 
the establishment of a college under the name and endorse- 
ment of Presbyterians would induce many to subscribe to 
the endowment, and so render it certain that the college 



Choice of Site for a College. 32t 

would be a success. But it proved that it was more in aiv 
pearance than in reality that this proposition was advanta- 
geous. For while it seemed that the amount of the sub- 
scription offered by the Masons was nearly as large as that 
offered by the Jackson Trustees, there was this material 
difference between the two propositions: the La Grano-e 
subscribers were not required to pay the principal of their 
subscriptions, but only the interest annuaUy due at six per 
cent. On the other hand, the proposal made by the Jack- 
son people was of an amount already paid in, and weU se^ 
cured, which was yielding the annual interest punctuaUy 
and promptly. Now to many persons it appeared the plain 
and prudent course for the Synod to close in at once with 
the offer made to them by the Trustees of "West Tennessee 
College, which was a certainty, and which admitted of im- 
mediate occupation, and the inauguration of the proposed 
church coUege without any delay. Accordingly, at a special 
session of the Synod of Memphis, which was held at Kip- 
ley, Miss., in the summer of 1856, the question of location 
was discussed, and aU the proposed inducements were fully 
considered, in earnest and animated debate, and the deci- 
sion reached by Synod was to accept the proposition of the 
Masonic fraternity, and to locate the college at La Grange, 
Tenn. Justice to the Synod demands that it should be 
stated here, that the paramount objection agamst the offer 
from Jackson was that the college there was a State insti- 
tution ; that the funds constituting its endowment were 
given by the State, and that these funds were not furnished 
by Presbyterians alone, but by the tax-payers at large, and 
that the endowment was not offered to the Synod in fee 
simple, but only as a loan, which might be withdrawn at 
any time ; and that other denominations through the State 
might object to this partnership of church and State ; 
therefore, the Synod should avoid this sort of co-operation 
and accept the offer from La Grange, as the Masons made 
21 



322 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

no conditions, but that the S3aiod should establish their 
college in the town of La Grange, and they surrendered to 
the Synod all the property and franchises possessed by 
them. The S3mod of Memphis accepted these proposals 
and determined to proceed at once to organize a church 
college at the town of La Grange, Tenn. 

At a meeting of the Synod, subsequently held at La 
Grange, on or about the 23d of October, 1856, the subject 
was discussed, and it was at this meeting that the election 
was made of a President and a Professor of Ancient Lan- 
guages. For the former office the Synod unanimously se- 
lected Eev. John H. Gray, D. D., who at that time was pas- 
tor of the Second Presbyterian church of Memphis. The 
universal popularity of Dr. Gray drew upon him the atten- 
tion of the entire Synod, both of the laity and the ministry, 
and, indeed, the people of the community of all the various 
classes, both secular and religious. He was made Presi- 
dent, and was commissioned soliciting agent on this occa- 
sion, although the full organization and opening of the col- 
lege was necessarily postponed until the 1st of October, 
twelve months thereafter. Dr. Gray signified his willing- 
ness to accept the call of the Synod, subject to the decision 
of the Presbytery of Memphis. After a great struggle and 
opposition to this movement, on the part of the Second 
church, the pastoral relation was dissolved. He occupied 
the intervening time in building a residence in La Grange, 
and visiting various parts of the Synod in prosecution of 
his agency for raising the endowment of the college, and he 
removed to La Grange in 1857, and entered upon the dis- 
charge of his duties as President of the college and stated 
supply of the Presbyterian church in that place. The 
Synod, as above stated, had filled the Professorship of 
Ancient Languages at the same time, in October, 185G. 
To that position I was called — not being a candidate— but 
I gave no intimation of any wiUingness to accept, nor did I 



Elected to College at La Grange. 323 

encourage my friends to expect that I would do so in the 
future. I remember that during the progress of the discus- 
sion in Synod at La Grange great enthusiasm was mani- 
fested by all, and among others who took prominent part 
in the consideration of the subject, Col. E. H. Porter, an 
elder of the Thii'd Presbyterian church, Memphis, made a 
most stirring speech, which he closed b}^ placing at the dis- 
posal of the Sj'nod 10,000 acres of Arkansas lands as his 
donation to the college to aid in its endowment. This 
created quite a sensation, and every one felt elated by the 
prospects opening before the college^ 



CHAPTER XXYI. 

Beluctance on my part to Leaving Univeesity of Mississippi. — In« 

DUCEMENTS HeLD OuT. RESIGNATION AND REMOVAL TO La GeANGE. 

— Action of Faculty and Students on my Resignation. 

IKETURNED to Oxford, however, with not the least de- 
sire to leave the University of Mississippi. I had pecu- 
liar views in regard to college and university life. During- 
the presidency of Dr. Longstreet, my close and intimate as- 
sociation with him as a colleague and a friend, led me to 
realize that the resjDonsibilities inseparably connected with 
the office of President were exceedingly weighty, and that. 
the successful discharge of the duties of that office re- 
quired qualities rarely possessed. Hence, whenever it was 
suggested to me, as was often done (particularly by Dr. 
Longstreet himself in casual conversation), that I would 
most probably succeed him as President, I invariably shrank, 
from the thought of such an event. I did not conceive my- 
self at all, by natural constitution or experience, fitted to 
occupy such a position. I had found the chair of a j^rofes- 
sor sufficiently responsible for my qualifications, both as a. 
teacher and disciplinarian, but I had become sufficiently 
self-assured, and perhaps self-confident in my ability to. 
meet the requirements of the subordinate office, so that I 
felt quite at home in my position in the University, and was^ 
by no means dissatisfied with my surroundings. In addi- 
tion to all this, I was most comfortably sustained in the 
matter of salary and home, as well as in my standing with 
the Board and Faculty. I allude to these facts merely to 
show why I did not feel inclined to change my sphere of 
effort, or my field of labor. In others words, I greatly pre- 

324 



Reluctance to Leave the L^niversity. 325 

felTed the chair of Ancient Languages in the University of 
Mississippi to the position of President of that institution, 
or of any other, and I considered it greatly preferable to 
the same chair in an untried and unestabhshed institution, 
such as the Synodical College at La Grange. This view of 
my entire satisfaction with my position at Oxford will serve 
to explain my reluctance, or, perhaps, a better word would 
be, indifference, toward La Grange. I gave no decision of 
the question of acceptance, however, for many months. 
During the summer of 1857, Dr. Gray, while on the agency 
to which he had been appointed, in soliciting funds for the 
endowment of the college of the Synod, came to Oxford 
during the exercises of the annual commencement of the 
University, on a visit to me. He was very earnest and 
pressing in his appeals to me to accept the professorship at 
La Grange, and go at once, on the nominal salary of $2,000, 
without a house. My salary at the University was $2,000, 
promptly paid, and a very good residence, rent free. I was 
not in a pecuniary condition to live without my salary, and 
the prospects held out at La Grange wore by no means flat- 
tering as to a support. I finally said to him that the verbal 
promise of the Board at La Grange was not sufficient, as 
they had no endowment from whose returns the salary 
could be realized, and that, although I entertained the most 
exalted estimate of their integrity, as well as of their regard 
for me personally, I could not consider them individually 
responsible, nor was there any wisdom in depending upon 
the arrangement as matters now stood. My position sur- 
prised him, as he was a man of confiding temperament, and 
always believed that what men promised they would per- 
form. I had not such faith in men — not even in Presbyte- 
rians. The steadiness of my refusal to go on the terms 
presented so wrought upon him that he proceeded to api^ly 
at once to certain men, friends of his, and myself also, 
who pledged themselves to guarantee my salary for five 



326 John L. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

years, at $2,000 per annum. Accordingly, after mucli 
prayer and deliberation upon the subject, I accepted, not 
without some misgivings as to the wisdom of the plan. 

I tendered my resignation to the Trustees, then in session, 
which, at first, they declined to accept. They appointed a 
committee to wait on me to request me to withdraw it. 
But on my j^ersisting in resigning, they expressed a wish 
that it should take effect at once, as it was important to 
have the vacancy filled during their session then in progress. 
The reason for this last intimation was that I had proposed, 
that my resignation should not take effect until January, 1858. 

It will not, I trust, be regarded as savoring too much 
of egotism that I refer at this point in the narrative to the 
testimonials voluntarily presented to me on occasion of my 
resignation, by various parties with whom I had been asso- 
ciated for nine years. Those who accorded to me these 
parting tokens of friendly regard and esteem were: First, 
the Trustees ; second, the Faculty ; and third, students of 
the University. In all these papers, such were the expres- 
sions of regret on the subject of my dissolving the relations 
which had so long held us in close association, and the 
terms of high appreciation conveyed to me of my services, 
that I could not but feel a sympathetic and responsive 
awakening of sadness at the idea of departure from a scene 
of so much congeniality in my surroundings, and I ac- 
knowledge a pang of regret at the thought that the step 
had been decided upon which would then bring to an end 
so pleasant a period of my life. But there was now no 
alternative, and not many days passed until I bade adieu to 
the campus, and the buildings, and all the familiar scenes 
where I had dwelt in such mingled peace and care, such 
toil and success, such joy and sorrow, such times of com- 
parative hapi^iness and times of deep affliction. 

My removal from Oxford to La Grange occurred in the 
vacation of the University. My family, consisting of four 



Removal to La Grange. 327 

children — Mary Robertson, Elizabeth Woodson Pleasants, 
and the two little boys, George, aged thirteen, and Gray, 
ten, with their grandmother, Mrs. Collier — went to La 
Grange on the first passenger train that passed from Oxford 
northward over the railroad, whose name then was the Mis- 
sissippi Central railroad. I remained a day longer in order 
to settle all my private affairs, and having chartered two 
freight cars, loaded them with my furniture, books, and pa- 
pers, and went up on the next day, arriving at La Grange 
about the 22d of August, 1857. Just previous to this the 
Trustees of the college had elected two additional profes- 
sors, viz. : Professor John R. Blake, of Georgia, and Profes- 
sor James L. Meigs; the former to the chair of Natural 
Philosophy and Chemistry, the latter to that of Mathe- 
matics and Astronomy ; Professor Meigs having served as 
chief engineer on the Memphis and Charleston railroad. 
Of these two gentlemen it will be my pleasure to write 
more fully hereafter. The college was now furnished with 
as fuU a corps of instructors as the means of support in. 
possession would justify. 



CHAPTEE XXVII. 

Visit to the North and Opening Pbospects of the College in 1857. — 
Geneeal Train of Work. 

THE first service which I was called ujDon to perform in 
my new field of labor, was to go to the Northern cities 
•on an agency to purchase an apparatus for the departments 
of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, and to secure, if pos- 
sible, some contributions for a library. 

I arrived in La Grange about the 22d of August, 1857, 
which was on Saturday, and j^reached in the Presbyterian 
church twice on the Sabbath. On Monday, the 24th, I 
.took the train on the Memphis and Charleston railroad for 
a tour North. The most travelled route at the time was via 
Chattanooga, Atlanta and Augusta, Ga., etc. My only stop 
on the way was at Greensboro', Ga., where I met for the 
first time Professor John R. Blake, Professor-elect at the 
new college at La Grange. He was then professor in a 
Tery flourishing female college, presided over at that time 
l3y Rev. I. S. K. Axson, D. D., afterwards pastor of the In- 
dependent Presbyterian church of Savannah, Ga., for so 
many years. Of Professor B. I shall have occasion to write 
more hereafter. At this point, I continue the account of 
my trip North. I spent several weeks in Boston, New York, 
and Philadelphia. In Boston I made a purchase of one 
thousand dollars' worth of scientific a2:)paratus and instru- 
mients, paying five hundred dollars of the purchase money 
in cash, which was the whole amount at the command of the 
Trustees at that time, the remainder being allowed on short 

328 



A Mission to the North. 329 

xjredit, and i^aid fuUy and promptly at the time due. On 
my Yisit I met with many of the prominent ministers of the 
Presbyterian Church, among them Eev. Dr. Potts, of New 
York, and Dr. John Leighton Wilson, who died in the ser- 
Tice of the Southern Presbyterian Church, at the head of 
the Committee of Foreign Missions, in 1886. At the time 
I met him in New York he was acting as Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian 
Church. This, it must not be forgotten, was four years 
previous to the separation of the Southern Presbyterians 
from the Northern Presbyterians, and the organization of 
the Presbyterian Church of the United (Confederate) States. 
Dr. Wilson had been a missionary in Western Africa as far 
back as 1837, and perhaps earlier than that period. But 
was oljliged to return on account of the loss of health of his 
family. When the late civil war began he returned to 
South Carolhia, his native State, and on the convention of 
the Southern Presbyteries to constitute a Southern Assem- 
bly, meeting in Augusta, Ga., in December, 1861, he was 
made Secretary of Foreign Missions, and served in that ca- 
pacity until his death, in 1886. I also met for the first and 
only time, Rev. Charles Hodge, the venerable and beloved 
Professor of Theology at Princeton, N. J., where I spent 
two days, during the vacation in the college, but after the 
opening of the session of the Theological Seminary, as I 
was present at the afternoon Sabbath conference conducted 
by him in the lecture-room of the Seminary. I remember 
walking with him through the Princeton cemetery, and hav- 
ing pointed out to me the graves of the Presidents of 
Princeton College, Burr, Edwards, Davies, Finley, Stanhope, 
Smith, and Green, besides the first professors of the Theo- 
logical Seminary, the venerable and saintly Alexander and 
Miller. I stopped a few days also in Philadelj^hia, where I 
met my friend, Dr. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer, then conduct- 
ing the Presbyterian Magazine, devoted to the cause of 



330 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

Christian education. He was also Secretary of the Assem- 
bly's Board of Education at that time. He made the col- 
lege a present of a. fine bell, and through his influence I 
obtained quite a contribution of valuable books from the 
publishing house of Lippincott & Co. I then left for La 
Grange, where I arrived about the 3d of October. 

The college opened about this time with the following 
Faculty : 

John H. Gkay, D. D., President, Professor of Ethics, Metaphysics and 

Sacred Literature. 
John N. Waddel, D. D., Professor of Ancient Languages. 
John E. Blake, M. A., Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry. 
James L. Meigs, M. A., Professor of 3fathematics and Astronomy: 

and Civil Engineering. 
Geoege K Grant, M. D., L^ecturer on Physiology. 
Hon. John W. C. Watson, Lecturer on Liter national Law. 

The two last gentlemen were not regular members of the 
Facult}", but promised to deliver lectures as they found op- 
portunity. Dr. Grant being an eminent physician of Mem- 
phis, and Mr. "Watson equally eminent at the bar, residing 
in Holly Springs, Miss. 

The Board of Trustees appointed by the Synod consisted. 
of three classes, composed of ministers and elders in equal 
numbers. Each class contained eight members, whose 
term of service expired after the first appointment in three 
years, subject to reappointment. The President of the col- 
lege was ex officio President of the Board of Trustees, and 
the other officers of the Board were a Treasurer, Assistant 
Treasurer, and Secretary. 

It is a noteworthy fact in the history of La Grange Synodi- 
cal College that it opened with the full number of the regu- 
lar college classes : Senior, Junior, Sophomore, and Fresh- 
men, and, besides, a scientific class and a primary school. 
The Seniors were seven ^ the Juniors, seven; the Sopho- 
mores, fifteen ; the Freshmen, thirty; the scientific class, 



I 



Opening of the College. 831 

fourteen ; and the primary school, forty-six ; the total in all 
departments numbering 119. Of these there were from 
Tennessee, seventy-three ; from Mississippi, forty; from 
Louisiana, four ; and from Arkansas, two — total, 119. The 
location of the college, just near the line separating Missis- 
sippi and Tennessee, accounts for the large proportion of 
students from the former State. At all events, it was a 
fact that three of our newly-organized Senior class left the 
University of Mississippi, and three of our Junior class had 
also been students in the same institution, and entered at 
La Grange. No effort was ever made by our Faculty, or by 
our Board of Trustees, to draw off students from the Mis- 
sissippi institution. It is to be attributed to the fact that 
this new enterprise was a church college, which caused a 
rally of the Presbyterians of the two adjoining States to its 
patronage and support, and the further fact that the people 
were satisfied with the manner in which the college had 
been organized. Its Faculty w^ere all well known to the sur- 
rounding community, except Professor Blake, whose en- 
dorsement was of a high order of excellence from Georgia, 
and who was not long in taking high rank among his col- 
leagues. The Trustees were men of the highest character 
in the ministry and eldership, and the confidence of the peo- 
ple of the immediate community speedily became enthusi- 
astic, and almost universal in the success of the college. 
My many w^arm friends in the churches of Oxford and 
Hopewell (near Oxford), to which I had been so long minis- 
tering, and to whom I had been warmly and deeply at- 
tached, manifested great attachment to me and seemed 
very unwilling that I should dissolve the pleasant relations 
which had existed for nine years in uninterrupted harmony. 
It was, therefore, settled that I should still supply these 
churches with preaching, going down every Saturday by 
rail, and returning on Monday morning, hy the early train, 
in ample time for my duties in the college. This arrange- 



332 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

ment, l)y wliicli I preached to Oxford and Hopewell on the 
usual Sabbaths of our engagement, continued until the 
tjlose of the year 1857. Then, as my labors became un- 
usually heavy in the fact that I was obliged to add a horse- 
back ride out to the country to my railroad ride, whenever 
it became the time for that ax:)pointment, I gave up the 
country church, and continued to supply Oxford twice in 
the month and the La Grange church twice per month, in 
which latter church Dr. Gray preached during the alternate 
Sabbaths. But the labors of the year 1858 were very 
heavy indeed on me; so much so, indeed, that at its close 
I felt that it was gradually undermining my health some- 
what seriously. I felt obliged, under these circumstances, 
to give up Oxford. I thenceforward confined my labors to 
the church at La Grange, still dividing the supply of that 
pulpit with Dr. Gray, and riding down to Lamar, a very 
"weak and i:)ooy church in Mississippi, south of La Grange a 
few miles, every alternate Sabbath, and preaching to the 
few excellent Presbyterians who resided in that neighbor- 
hood. I recall the fact now, that on nearly every day when 
I preached there. Judge Alexander M. Clayton, whose fine 
country home was near the church, attended with his 
family. The judge and I had been long associated in the 
University of Mississippi, he and I having been meml^ers of 
the chartered Board of Trustees, and then from 1848 to 
1857 he still was an influential Trustee, and I a member of 
the Faculty. I was always happy to number him among 
my friends in whom I had confidence. Before dismissing 
this part of my record, I will mention a very pleasing inci- 
dent connected with my reminiscences of Oxford and its ex- 
cellent and always beloved people. At the close of the 
year, when I ceased to preach for them, the ladies of the 
Presbyterian church sent me a beautiful present of a silver 
j^itcher, two goblets, and a large handsome salver, and ac- 
companied the present with a beautiful letter, as follows : 



A Pleasing Eeminiscence. 333 

"Oxford, Miss , J,inunry 25, 1859. 
Rev. J. N. Waddel, D. D. : 

"Dear Sie,— When in the Providence of God we were called upon 
to sever the ties which had bound you to us through so many happy 
years, it was with the sad conviction that we were losing a wise coun- 
sellor, a faithful friend, and an affectionate pastor, that we resigned 
ourselves to the will of God. We strove, without repining, to bid you 
farewell, following you with our prayers and blessings, to that new 
field of labor in which we knew you might find more numerous and 
powerful friends, but in which we felt sure you could find none more 
ardent and attached than those who, in this little church of Christ, 
have been for years guided by your counsels, encouraged by your ex- 
hortations, and edified by your example. Time has only served to 
strengthen these feelings, and to perpetuate, as far as may be, by the 
the simple gift which accompanies this note, the remembrance of a 
relationship which God has blessed abundantly to us, and, w^e trust, 
rendered happy to you. Be pleased to accept it as a slight memento 
of our confidence and affection, a perishable token of the imperish- 
able gratitude and regard which we will ever cherish toward you. 

" With the warmest wishes for your future usefulness and happi- 
ness, Truly and kindly yours, 

"(Signed), " J. E. Rascoe, 

M. A. Wendel, 

S. ISOM, 

*• CommitUe in belialf of the Ladies of the Presbyterian Churc\ 
Oxford, Miss." 



CHAPTER XXYIII. 

Sketches of the Members op the Faculty.— Key. John Hannah 
Geay, D. D. — Professor John Rennie Blake, A. M. — Professor 
James L. Meigs, A. M. 

AS I gave sketches and reminiscences of my colleagues 
in the University of Mississippi, it is but due to the 
love and esteem I have always entertained for those with 
-whom I was associated in this college, so intimately and 
harmoniously for four years, that I should attempt some 
portraiture of their characteristics as presented in the posi- 
tions they occupied. I propose in this place to insert a very 
full and minute account of the life and labors of Dr. John 
H. Gray, the first presiding officer of the college. This notice 
of him was published not long after his death, which oc- 
curred in 1878, a period never to be forgotten by those who 
recall the fearful desolation and ravages of the fatal yellow 
fever epidemic j^revailing in Memphis and the surrounding 
country during that year. I make no apology for inserting 
it here, inasmuch as I am its author, and hold it as being, 
with all its faults, true to the lamented subject, about wiiose 
character there is no fear that anything too good can be re- 
corded. He Jias been released from his toils on earth, and 
has long since entered into his heavenly rest, and while 
those who knew and loved him and profited by his " w-ork 
of faith, his labor of love, and his patience of hope," need 
no aid in recalling him to memory, as " the righteous shall 
be in everlasting remembrance," let his name and his life be 
perpetuated to those who come after, as the model of imi- 
tation for all who may read this humble narrative. 

334 



Rev. John H. Gray, D. D 335 

1. Rev. John Hannah Gray, T>. D., First President of La 
Grange College. 

The subject of tliis sketch was one of a class of men — 
always few in number, but still to be found — witnesses for 
Jesus Christ, of the loving and beautiful fruits of the Chris- 
tian religion. Some represent that religion as " the Pauls," 
others as "the Peters," and yet others as "the Johns," 
among the discij)les. Of this last class. Dr. Gray was uni- 
versally admitted to be a shining member, " a living epistle, 
known and read of all men," insomuch that he was lov- 
ingly and affectionately styled by his more intimate friends, 
as * the beloved discii^le. ' " 

He was born in February, 1805, in Abbeville district, 
:South Carolina, within the bounds of Hopewell church, of 
which his parents were prominent members, and his father 
an honored and leading ruling elder. Descended from 
such parents, it is not by any means surprising to find that 
Dr. Gray was, at a very early age, made by the Holy Spirit 
a subject of that grace of God the fruits of which he dis- 
played in a most extraordinary manner during his whole 
subsequent life, both as a private member and as an emi- 
nent minister of Jesus Christ. His heart and mind were 
at once turned to the gospel ministry as his future life-work, 
and he was sent for his literary preparation to the Univer- 
sity of Georgia, then under the presidency of Dr. Moses 
Waddel, father of this writer. There Dr. Gray pursued 
his course of collegiate study to his graduation, which he 
accomplished with high distinction in 1823, in the nineteenth 
3'ear of his age. Being in due time licensed and ordained, 
he entered upon the great work of preaching the gospel, 
having found as his first field of ministerial labor, the then 
newly settled and attractive region of Western Alabama. 
Here he spent twelve or fifteen years of laborious and suc- 
cessful toil in the work of the ministr3\ He was for many 
years pastor of the churcli of Mesopotamia, and afterwards 



336 John L. Waddel, D. D. LL. D. 

of Betlisalem, both in the county of Greene, and then, in the 
hope of securing better health for his f amity, he removed to 
Jasper county, Miss., in 1841. Thence he was called to 
the pastorate of the Presbyterian church of Vicksburg, and 
removed to that city in 1843, and resided there for about 
two years, when, in obedience to another invitation, he went 
to the young and rising city of Memphis. Here he organ- 
ized the Second Presbyterien church, and conducted the 
services for some time in a building near the river bluff, 
temporarily converted from a warehouse into a house of wor- 
ship. Here his labors were blessed, and his devoted and en- 
terprising people resolved to "arise and build." In this 
church Dr. Gray served God and His people for fourteen years 
with eminent success, universally esteemed as a model pastor. 
His blameless Hfe, his tender sympathy with all classes of 
sufferers, his fidelity to the duties of his sacred office, hia 
tender, affectionate, and wise pulpit ministrations, all com- 
bined to clothe him with an influence and a power for good 
such as few men have ever wielded in Memphis. His 
name is still as ointment poured forth among the survivors 
of those days when he dwelt among them, and went in and 
out before them, as first pastor of the Second Presbyterian 
church of Memphis. It was during his residence as pastor 
here that the honorary degree of Doctor of Di\dnity was 
conferred upon him by the University of Nashville, then 
under the presidency of the eminent scholar and divine, 
Philip Lindsley, D. D. In a former cha^^ter of this memoir 
is recorded fully the accormt of the dissolution of this 
happy and fruitful pastorate, consequent upon the call of 
Dr. Gray to the presidency of the Synodical College at La 
Grange. The success of the college under his presidential 
administration from 1857 to 1860, was unparalleled. The 
prosperity which marked its career, in the fact that the 
average number of students for the few years of its exist- 
ence was far beyond what is usual in young colleges, and 



k 



Eev. John H. Gray, D. D. 337 

tliat the advancement and orderty and gentlemanly deport- 
ment of the students proved to be so creditable to them- 
selves and to their Faculty, are attributable, no doubt, in 
great measure to the wise and judicious management of 
the President, in which he enjoyed the cordial co-operation 
of his attached colleagues. 

The close of the disastrous " War between the States " 
found Dr. Gray again in his La Grange home, surrounded 
by the ruins of the college and the town, and the material 
work in entire desolation, and all that could l)e reached by 
the ravages of war passed away " among the things that- 
were ! " But gathering up his last energies, he zealously 
devoted himself, " heart, soul, mind, and strength," to the' 
work of the ministry, daring ten years of toil, preaching in 
the weakened churches — La Grange, Saulsbury, and Mid- 
dleton — as often as j^ossible, until increasing debility, arising' 
from a chronic affection of some years' standing, compelled 
him reluctantly to cease preaching altogether. His lasfe 
days were clouded and saddened by the loss of the devoted 
wife of his 3'outh, and so, by slow and increasing infirmi- 
ties, he passed to his rest, on Sabbath, September 22, 1878, 
aged seventy-two years, seven months and seventeen days. 

Let us sum up the prominent traits of his character, that 
they ma}^ be left on record for the future character of the 
church's history. 

1. Naturally amiable and affectionate, these traits, refined 
and elevated by grace, made him a devoted husband, a ten- 
der and loving father, a faithful and constant friend, a sym- 
jDathetic pastor, an earnest, beseeching pleader with men to- 
seek the salvation of their souls. If he had an enemy, it 
was unknown. 

2. "The chastening of the Lord," which he had borne in 
the loss of wife and nine of their eleven children, and many 
others dear to him as kindred and friends, wrought upon 
him the influence of rendering him only more tender and 

22 



338 JoirN N. AVadi^kll, J). ])., LL. D. 

gentle, -weauing liiiii more entirely from the tliingB of earth, 
and attracting- him more eagerly to heaven. He said to 
one, '' I pray for resignation to live ! " Such ^vaH his longing 
*' desire to depart and he with Jesus." 

3. As a preacher, he never "served God with that which 
t;ost him nanght." His sermons he very diligently pre- 
pared, especially accompanying his studies with prayer, 
i'(!alizing the great Reformer's experience, "bene orasse, cM 
bene studuhsa.'' His pnl})it exercises were alnnidant in 
gospel trnth, and his (ixhibitions of God's love in J(!sns 
Christ were peculiarly tender and impressive;, littered in a 
voice (exception ally swecst and winning, while his naturally 
noble face was irradiated with the spirit of hnrning love to 
God and mail. One of his ministerial hrethrcm, who often 
heard liim, once remarked, after one of his happiest efforts, 
*' I surely never preached, so different are my sermons from 
this." 

4. He was tlie very soul of benevolence. It will n(;v r be 
Iviiown until the great day what he accomplished in this 
line of Christian work — how many tears he drifid, how iiiuch 
suffering he relieved, how many woundcid hearts he aided in 
binding up, how much he contributed ol" his substance to 
the treasury of the Lord ; but it is wriiteii in "the Hook of 
(God's remembrance." 

His remains lie in Him wood cemetery, in the family lot, 
b(!side those of the dear departcid wlio preceded him, and 
his r(!l(%'ised spirit has doubtless been welcomed to the pre- 
sence of his divine Master with "W(!ll dom;, good and 
iaithful servant; enter thou into the joy of tli}^ Lord ! " 

2. JouN Hennie Blake, A. M. 

The gentleman whose name heads this part of the history 

is a native of South Carolina, and at the time of his election 

to the Prohissorship of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry 

was in his thirty-second year. He was a graduate of the 



John Eennie Blake, A. M. 339 

University of Georgia, of the class of 1846, closing Lis term 
of scholastic training Avith high distinction in a class re- 
markable even then for intellectual and scholarly ability, 
many of whom attained eminence in the various depart- 
ments of prv)fessional life. Professor Blake "was a student 
of the Lawrence Scientific Schojl at Harvard University, 
taking special courses under the celebrated Professor 
Agassiz, and was a private pupil of Agassiz in his laboratory 
on the seashore at Naliant, Massachusetts ; and on his nomi- 
nation by Professor Agassiz, he was elected corresponding 
member of the "Boston Natural History Society." He was 
also a pupil of the great chemist, Horsford. Ho was elected, 
as already stated, in 1857, to the chair of Natural Sciences 
in La Grange Synodical College. On the dissolution of the 
College, in 18G1, he was elected Professor of Natural Phil- 
osophy and Astronomy in Davidson College, North Caro- 
lina. He serv(;d during the administrations of I)rs. J. L. 
Kirkpatrick and G. AV. McPhail in this cliair with such 
eminent 8ucc(3ss as an instructor and practical managcjr 
that, on the death of Dr. McPhail, Professcn- Blake was ap- 
l)ointed chairman of the Faculty of Davidson College. Li 
this capacity he served the college with signal ability and 
phenomenal success until 1879, when, on the change of this 
l)rovisional form of administration, to whi(;h Professor Blake 
had always been opposed, he became, by election, Vice- 
President of the College. In 1884 he tendered his resigna- 
tion of the chair he hud so l(m<^ filled, but Avas induccul to 
withdraw it by the earnest appeals of those interested ; but 
renewing his resignation in 1885 persistently, the Board 
accepted it, witli complimcintary expressions of high est(M>m 
and regret on his severance of a laboricnis term of faithful 
service of twenty- four years. 

The above ruiming sketch of the life and hib;)rs of this 
most excellent and successful college ochicator is given as a 
clear demonstration of the estimate placed by the friends 



340 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

and patrons of education upon his services, talents, and 
learning, of all which La Grange was the recipient for only 
four ye.irs. I do not consider, however, that full justice 
will have been accorded to him without something addi- 
tional, first, as a statement of his standing and character at 
La Grange, and then as to the estimate placed uj)on him at 
Davidson College. For the first I am responsible, as it con- 
sists of a true statement of my own knowledge of his course 
during his brief sojourn with us of the four years passing 
between 1S57 and 1861. 

Professor Blake's connection with La Grange College 
began in October, 1857, and from the very outset of his 
career to its close he manifested the utmost devotedness of 
all his energies, intellectual and moral, to the work of build- 
ing up the cause of Christian education. Of his qualifica- 
tions, by personal training and study and experience, we 
have already made ample mention ; and no man with whom 
I have ever been associated was ever more zealous and suc- 
cessful in imparting the benefits of his own learning and 
acquisitions to those under his instructions. He was faithful, 
as all who knew him can testify, as a disciplinarian ; and while 
sufficiently rigid in exacting of his pupils the requisite dili- 
gence and devotion to preparation for all scholastic exer- 
cises and just in awarding to all the credit due to their per- 
formances, he was courteous and approachable on all occa- 
sions by the students. He was much beloved and highly 
esteemed as a member of the Facult}" by his colleagues, 
never shrinking from the assumption of his full share of all 
the responsibility devolving upon himself. The character- 
istics thus displayed in his daily work and association with 
the college department of his life were as clearly manifest 
in the community and in the church of La Grange. He 
was, at an early period of his settlement there, made an 
elder of the small body of believers in the town, and carried 
out the full details of duty marked out as belonging to that 



John Rennie Blake, A. M. 341 

highly-honored office. He was in this office, as in all others 
in which he was called to serve, " not slothful in business, 
fervent in spirit, serving- the Lord." As a Christian, he was 
esteemed as devoted, and ready for every good word and 
work, and as upholding the ministry by his prayers, coun- 
sel, and sj-mpathy. As a citizen, he was faithful and con- 
scientious in all the demands of his country ; and from the 
beginning of the terrible civil dissension of 1861, which re- 
sulted in the temporary ruin of the material interests of his 
native South, he w^as an unhesitating and open believer in the 
righteousness of our cause. While I write he still lives, re- 
tired from all the responsibilities of the teacher's life, but 
at his ow^n homestead in South Carolina, in otio cum dlgni- 
tate, enjoying the entire confidence of the community and 
the church around him. After a tolerably long, and, 
assuredly, a well-spent life, he is surrounded by the friends 
of his early boyhood, awaiting, not in idleness, but in active 
application of all his powers to usefulness in every w^ay, the 
tranquil old age, or the peaceful summons to the gracious 
reward provided for all those who hold out faithful unto 
death. 

I am indebted to a work called Semi- Centenary Ad- 
dresses — Davidson College, published in 1887, for some au- 
thoritative statements in regard to Professor Blake, of which 
I gladly avail myself. I make no apology for devoting thus 
much of my history to this sketch, as I hold that it is but 
carrying out in reality the injunction to give "honor to 
whom honor is due." Says Eev. Dr. Rumple, of North 
Carolina : 

"Professor Blake's administration was characterized by 
excellent order, attention to study, harmony among the 
Faculty, and thorough scholarship among the graduates. 
He governed by the Faculty, whose executive officer he was, 
and the College never had a more satisfactory or successful 
period than those six years." 



342 John N. vVaddel, D. D., LL. D. 

Rev. Mr. Milner, of Georgia, remarks in reference to Pro- 
fessor Blake : " His subsequent promotion to the presidency 
of the institution sufficiently evinces the fact that his chair 
was ably and honorably filled." 

From the long and eloquent tribute to Professor Blake 
furnished by Colonel A. R. Banks, of South Carolina, to 
whom had been assigned, as his part in the programme of 
the semi-centenary, the history of the chairmanship admin- 
istration, the following : "In his twenty-six years of college 
work he taught in every department of the college, from the 
geography of the preparatory to the philosophy of the se- 
nior. Not once during this whole time did he remit the 

Bible For all these extra duties and labors Professor 

Blake received no extra pay. Nor was he ever heard to 
complain of insufficient salary. ' In labors more al^undant, 
in duties above measure,' he toiled bravely on ; the interests 
of the college were his interests, her advancement his high- 
est aim, asking no better reward than the confidence and 
regard of his co-laborers and the Board whom he served. 
Could WG call back those who labored with him, now gone 

to give an account of their stewardship, they would, 

with one accord, give to John R. Blake the plaudit, " "WeE 
done, good and faithful servant ! " 

E. C. Smith, Esq., of Raleigh, N. C, in a passing com- 
pliment, speaks of him, in his history of Dr. Hepburn's ad- 
ministration, as "the learned, wise, and earnest Blake." 

Much more might be written of Professor Blake, but 
these facts will be sufficient to show that the crowning ex- 
cellence of a teacher is not simply that he be a learned man, 
a splendid scholar, and a successful instructor, important 
and essential as these qualities always are, but that he be a 
man of earnest Christian character, teaching by example as 
by precept, living out, in liis daily intercoiu'se with his 
pupils, the life of Christ, and thus training them by not only 
conscious^ but by unconscious tuition. 



I 



James Lamme Meigs, M. A.. 343 



3. James Lamme Meigs, M. A. 
This gentleman, -^hom I have mentioned among the mem- 
bers of the first Faculty of La Grange College, was a native 
of the town of Athens, in East Tennessee. He was born on 
February 25, 1827. His father, the well known jurist, 
Return Jonathan Meigs, was author of several works, long- 
held as eminent authority in the legal profession, being Su- 
preme Court Eeports. The removal of this gentleman from 
Athens to Nashville in 1835 furnished ample opportunities 
for the education of his children. There the subject of this 
sketch was, in due time, entered as a student in the Uni- 
versity of Nashville, and was graduated from that institu- 
tion, which, under the presidency of the celebrated Philip 
Lindsley, D. D., became the Alma Mater of so large a num- 
ber of the distinguished citizens of Tennessee and neighbor- 
ing States. At the early age of twenty-one Professor Meig^ 
began his career as a teacher in that city. On account of 
impaired health, he became engaged in engineering surveys 
on the Memphis and Charleston railroad in 1850, and con- 
tinued in the service of that company until the completion 
of the road, in 1857. In 1854 he had been elected Profes- 
sor of Mathematics in thu University of Nashville, but his 
previous engagements prevented his acceptance of this call. 
It was just at the time of his completion of the term of ser- 
vice as engineer on the Memjohis and Charleston railroad 
that the Synodical College at La Grange was organized and 
the Faculty of four Professors was filled. Mr. Meigs was 
unanimously elected to the chair of Mathematics in the new 
institution, and filled that position with distmguished suc- 
cess and to universal acceptance during four years, until, by 
the occurrence of the civil war, its exercises were brought to 
a close. After this Professor Meigs was occui^ied during 
the progress of the war in teaching, having been first super- 
intendent of the public schools in Nashville, and then in 



3M John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

conductiug a private school until the war closed. He was 
again called into the service of the Memphis and Charleston 
railroad as engineer in rebuilding the part that had been 
destroyed during the war. In 1868, '69, and '70 he was en- 
gineer of the Memphis and Little Rock railroad, and in 
1871-74 of the Paducah and Memphis railroad. Since that 
time he has been engaged in teaching and in river and har- 
bor surveys on the Gulf Coast, in the employment of the 
government. He has been twice married, and was the father 
iof a son and a daughter, the former only surviving. 

The foregoing are the mere particulars of his life, but I 
■feel that it is due to him and to the public he served to give 
the record of his moral traits, which are indelibly stamped 
upon my memory, and which endeared him to all who knew 
liim. 

Professor Meigs w^as naturally a man of amiable and high- 
i:oned principle, yet of most decided traits of virtue and 
honor. He was, in my judgment, one of the purest men I 
ihave ever known ; but in addition to all that, he was a man 
of deep and ardent joiety — a devoted Christian. As a pub- 
lic character, in charge of most important trusts, his integ- 
rity was incorruptible, his honor unimpeachable ; as a dis- 
ciplinarian, he was firm, and yet kind ; as an accomplished 
scholar and successful teacher, he had no superior; as 
a Christian gentleman and a faithful friend, imiversally 
esteemed and beloved. 



CHAPTEK XXIX. 

Second Session. — General Character of the Work Done. — Mode of 
Discipline. — Progress of the Endowment. 

¥E closed our first session, 1857-'58, very successfully, 
by graduating seven young men. The first honor 
■was given to a young man who had left the University of 
Mississippi to join the La Grange College at its opening. 
Of the stuclents who shared the second honor one of them 
"was from the University of Mississippi, and the other from 
ihe "\Vest Tennessee College, at Jackson. We closed, as 
already stated, wdth 119 students on our roll, in all depart- 
ments. The second session opened under the same Faculty, 
in the college proper, but the ^preparatory school was now 
organized under two instructors, both of whom w^ere origi- 
nally students of the University of Mississippi, the j)rinci- 
pal being James J. Quarles, who w^as first honor man of the 
iirst graduating class of that institution in the year 1851; 
the assistant being a graduate of 1S56 of the same. There 
ivas not only no diminution of patronage, but an increase of 
fifty-one over the total of last session. The distribution of 
the number in attendance, by classes, the second session, 
was as follows, viz. : Seniors, 7 ; eTuniors, 15 ; Sophomores, 
31 ; the Freshmen, 33 ; Scientific Class, 23 ; the prepara- 
tory school, 61 ; total, 170. The distribution of this num- 
ber, by States, was as follows . From Tennessee, 8G ; from 
Mississippi, 73; from Arkansas, 4; from Louisiana, 4; from 
Texas, 2 ; from Alabama, 1. 

The session was characterized by a creditable devotion to 
study, and a gentlemanly deportment on the part of the 
students, so that everything seemed to move on Avithout 

345 



34G J3HN N. Waddel, D. D , LL. D. 

friction of any kind. The work accomplislied by the 
Faculty was by no means the perfunctory discharge of 
duty, but each officer seemed to feel the responsibility rest- 
ing upon him for the very best work which could be done 
under all circumstances. Not a single instance of college 
discipline was recorded, and peace, harmony and cordiality 
prevailed throughout the college community. 

The College continued its career of usefulness for about 
three regular sessions, with an attendance of 126 students 
in the third session, and the number in the broken term of 
1860-'G1 cannot be stated, in which last year the regular 
operations of the college closed in April, by reason of the 
war, which began then. So that the result of patronage of 
the four sessions (including the one interrupted thus) may 
be summarized as amounting to something over 500 stu- 
dents. As the war had commenced in the sj^ring by the 
firing of the first gun from Fort Sumter, and the procla- 
mation of President Lincoln calling for seventy -five thousand 
soldiers to meet the South, the exercises of the session 
were brought to a close in the month of April, 1861, and 
we graduated a class of about thirteen. The catalogue 
of the college for the session of 1860-'61 was regularly 
made out, and sent to New York for publication, and I 
learned was actually printed and ready to be sent down to 
us, but it was considered contrcC>and of vkit, and was 
never received. The consequence is that the number in at- 
tendance cannot be recorded save by conjecture. 

For the following statements in regard to the endowment 
of the College I am iiiclabted to the Rev. A. H. Caldwell, 
the energetic and devoted agent ap}3ointed by the Synod to 
solicit funds : 

"January 20, '90. 

"1. In relation to the scholarships of the Masonic fra- 
ternity ($37,500), the whole contribution was considered, 
after one or two j^ears' trial, as an incubus on the institu- 



The Coi,lege of La Grange. 347 

tion. The owners of scholarships who lived not far off w^ere 
inclined to put in students at such a price for tuition as to 
lessen the income of such students to the amount of $20. 
With the advice of friends of the College, I, as agent of the 
College, compromised with scholarship holders, returning 
their scholarship notes for what cash I could get. I tried 
to displace the scholarships within six or eight miles of 
La Grange. I sold some of the notes for $200 and others 
for less. None of those scholarships were ever paid in any 
other wav. 

" 2. The salaries of Professors for the last year were not 
fully paid. I had a large amount of railroad stock, which I 
turned over to them, but they made but little out of it. 

•' 3. The ten thousand acres of land were returned to Mr. 
E. H. Porter. I had sold and taken notes for the amount 
of $35,000, of w4iich all was lost by the war. 

" 4. The trustees made application to Congress for dam- 
ages to the amount of $32,000. The Sj-nod still keeps up 
the corporation, and I, as President of the Board of Trus- 
tees, call a meeting every Synod and make a report. 

" Gilbert Moyers, of Washington city, is our attorney, and 
he encourages us to hope that there is still some prospect of 
success. What was left of the property after the Yiav w^as- 
all turned back to the original contributors." 



CHAPTEK XXX. 

Eesignation of De. Gray. — Election of His Successor. — Corre- 
spondence WITH Davidson College Authorities. 

IT will now be proper to retrace our record so as to bring 
to view some events that transpired during the last years 
of the College, so as to make its history complete. We had 
found, by the gradual increase of our patronage and the 
extent of the territory from which it was drawn, that there 
was occasionally introduced into our body of students an 
element of evil-disposed and badly -trained young men and 
boys who became troublesome and difficult to control. This 
is the experience of such institutions, and under such a 
malign influence, it is generally the case that much of the 
same spirit of insubordination is found diffused among the 
other students. La Granq-e Colle<2'e did not form an ex- 
ception to this state of things : for while there was never 
experienced there any very extensive state of disorder 
among the students — none, in fact, comparable to those re- 
corded of other colleges whoso history is given — yet enough 
of trouble of this sort was in existence to require vigilance 
and to demand the exercise of discipline on the part of the 
Faculty ; yet it was always readily and justly disposed of by 
them. After the first three sessions had been successfully 
brought to their respective endings, I was approached on a 
certain occasion, just previous to the annual meeting of the 
Board of Trustees at Commencement by the President, Dr. 
Gra}^ with a communication which surprised me not a little. 
He announced his intention to place his resignation of the 
office of President in the hands of the Board at their ensu- 
ing meeting. I gave it as my decided opinion that he ought 

348 



Elected to the Presidency. 349 

not to resign, and combated his proposed course by e^ery 
consideration drawn from the fact of liis administration 
having been successful, and that he was the chosen repre- 
sentarive of the Synod by a unanimity which no other man 
could command. But he resolutely persisted in his deter- 
mination, and could not be moved by any representation 
that I could make. He then added, further, that his object 
in this movement was to have me made President. To this 
I at once objected, as it was a position I had never coveted, 
and that it had no attractions for me whatever; but the re- 
sponsibilities inseparable from it were altogether repulsive 
to my tastes and inclinations. His reply to that was, that 
unless I would agree to accept the office he would not only 
resign the presidency, but he would abandon the institu- 
tion! The matter thus remained in an undecided position, 
without my having given any intimation of a change of 
views on the subject, until the Board met, when he put hia 
plan in execution, tendered his resignation, and it was ac- 
cepted by the Board. On his proposal I was put in nomi- 
nation, and unanimously elected his successor. 

I knew very well that Dr. Gray's main and influential 
reason for offering his resignation was, he felt the annoy- 
ances and vexations of the government of the college as, 
exerting too fearful a pressure upon his nevous tempera- 
ment, and that the very act of restraint which he felt to be 
bindino- upon him as President over the student body, and 
which he saw to be called for so frequently, and then the 
execution of penalties adjudged as the consequence of vio- 
lation of rule, all assumed in his view, and before his tender 
and gentle disposition, an almost frightful aspect. His 
three years' experience of college presidency had only 
served to confirm the convictions of his judgment as it was 
swayed bv all his feelings and habitudes. 

When the action was communicated to me, I signified, 
very decidedly, my unwiUingness to accept the office of 



350 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

President. But I was allowed reasonable time in whicli to 
make up my final answer. The vacation of two months 
was on us, and matters remained in this state of indecision 
until the fall meeting of the Synod of Memphis. 

It was just about this time, when all this was in progress 
at La Grange, that a very singular condition of affairs was 
occurring in a distant j)art of the country, made known to 
me in the following series of letters, directed to me by the 
Rev. R. H. Morrison, D. T>., of North Carolina, and others, 
bearing upon a similar subject. 

As introductory to this series of letters, I present the 
following communication, dated "April 24th, 1860" : 

No. 1. 

" My Dear Brother : Rev. Dr. Lacy, who has been 
President of Davidson College for several years, has given 
notice of his puri3ose to resign, in consequence of feeble 
health. My object in this note is to ascertain if you would 
accept the presidency of our college, if elected. 

" Davidson is strictly a Presbyterian institution, under the 
care of three Presbyteries in this State and South Carolina ; 
is now well endowed, having received over two hundred 
thousand dollars from the legacy of Mr. Chambers. It is 
worth nearly $300,000. We are now about completing per- 
haps one of the most splendid college edifices in the United 

States, costing over $80,000 You would 

find with us the co-operation of as interesting a Presbyte- 
rian community as can be found in the South, and might, 
by God's blessing, do a great work for the prosperity of the 
church and the good of society. 

"I should be pleased to hear fully from you on this sub- 
ject, and will give you any information in my power. The 
election, I presume, will be at our next Commencement, in 

the month of July I hope soon to hear from 

you, and would be delighted to hear in favorable terms. 

" Very truly your brother in Christ, R. H. Morrison." 



Call to Davidson College. 351 

In rcpl/ to this wholly unexpected letter, I stated to Dr. 
Morrison very frankly, that I could not possibly accept the 
presidency of Davidson College, even if elected; that I was 
bound to serve La Grange College fioe years by the very 
terms of my accej^tance of the chair to Avhich I had been 
elected. In answer to this, which I regarded as suffi- 
ciently plain and decisive to end the correspondence, I re- 
ceived from Dr. Morrison the following letter, bearing date, 

No. 2. 
" Cottage Home, Jane 2Gth, 1860. 

" Rev. and Dear Brother : I had a letter from Dr. B. M. 
Smith, a few days since, in w^hich he expressed the opinion 
that if you should be elected as President of Davidson Col- 
lege, and strongly sohcited, you might accept the post. 

•'' Your letter to me was so frank and exphcit, in express- 
ing a different opinion, that I then concluded that it was 
not necessary to continue the correspondence. 

" It is the wish to leave no probabihty of success untried 
that induces me to address you again. Of course, I seek 
not to induce you to depart from any assumed obligation. 
But it has occurred to me that possibly your friends miglit 
be willing to release 3^ou from your pledge to stay five years 
at La Grange. I doubt whether they had any right to 
exact such a promise. If you think you cannot be honorably 
released, of course I have nothing more to say. If you 
could be, I would feel well assured of your election, and 
that you would do a great and good work for the church in 
our midst. We are sadly in the dark, as we know of no 

Southern man fully qualified that can be obtained 

Di'- , of , is spoken of, but some of the 

trustees are not satisfied with him. Various others are 
thought of, but not with that regard which will secure a 
united vote. If you have anything further to say, I would 
be very glad to hear from you. 



352 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

" Our election will ba about the 16tli of July. There is 
time to hear from you again, if you write without delay. 
" Very truly, your friend and brother, 

" (Signed), " E. H. Morrison."" 

To this I made no reply at all, as I had said in my first 
communication all that I had to say in answer to his first 
proposition. I heard nothing more from Dr. Morrison on 
the subject of these two letters, until some time after the 
close of our Commencement, to which reference has been 
made in preceding page, at which time, being about the first 
week in July, 1860, the Trustees of La Grange College had, 
by a unanimous vote, elected me to the presidency as Dr. 
Gray's successor. The following letter was, in due course 
of mail, received by me from Dr. Morrison, being the third 
communication from him : 

No. 3. 
" Cottage Home, July IWi, 1860. 

"Rev. and Dear Brother: I have just returned from a 
meeting of our Trustees of Davidson College. 

" As an election for President had to take place yesterday, 
I much regretted not having received from you a reply to 
my last letter. 

" Deeply impressed with the importance of having a first- 
rate man at the head of our institution, I ventured to lay 
your claims before our Board, and I am happy to say you 
have been unanimously elected President of our college. 
The salary has been raised from $1,500 to $2,000, and the 
use of a good house, &c. I am gratified to say that the 
vote was not only unanimous, but ardent and enthusiastic, 
as much so as I have ever witnessed. As proof of this, 
many of our best ministers were most solemnly affected 
with the deep conviction that it was the interference of 
God's Providence which led to your election. For some 
time before the vote we were engaged in united and ear- 



Call to DA^^DS0N College. 353 

^est supplication to God as a Board for the guidance of His- 
Spirit. To do all we could to remove the difficulties in the 
way, we appointed a delegate to visit you very soon to lay 
the facts before you, and to prevail on 3'oui* f nends to release 
you from all obligations to remain longer with them, when, 
as we think, God calls you to a wider field of usefulness. 
My son-in-law, Kufus Barringer, Esq., was appointed our 

commissioner And now, dear brother, in view 

of all the facts, we think the call of God is manifest that 
you should come to our College, and there do a noble work 

for the Church of Christ We have received, or 

wall receive, from the legacy of Mr. Chambers, about $220,- 
000, making us worth, in all, about $300,000. We have 
about the best Presbyterian population in this State and 
South Carolina to sustain us that can be found in the 
United States. I refer you to our delegate for additional 
information. We confidently hope for a favorable answer^ 
I think the hand of God is in it. May the God of all wis- 
dom show you the path of duty. 

"Very truly your brother in Christ, 

" (Signed), " R. H. Mokrison." 

It will surprise no reader of this record that I was deeply 
impressed with these various communications from such a 
source. Dr. Morrison, as is well known throughout the en- 
tire church, was one of the most revered, esteemed, and be- 
loved ministers of the South, a man of great personal weight 
of character and influence, in whose judgment universal 
confidence w^as reposed. Davidson College also was then 
established upon a secure financial basis, and held a high 
place in the affections and regard of the people of North 
Carohna. Moreover, the letters of Dr. Morrison w^ere very 
shortly after followed by letters from the following indi\dd- 
uals, more or less closely connected with the College. A 
brief mention of the names of the writers will suffice to 
22 



1354 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

show the influence that was brought to bear upon mo in this 
matter. 

A very strongly-written and earnest communication was 
received, dated July 14, 1860, from Messrs. Kockwell, Kerr, 
and Mclvor, who w^ere then Professors in the Faculty of the 
College, urging my acceptance. Dr. Lacy, the retiring 
President, was urgent in a similar letter. Communications 
of the same class poured in upon me from others, with some 
•of whom I had slight acquaintance, and of others I knew 
very little, if anything at all. Besides the official notifica- 
tion of my election from Dr. E. Nye Hutchison, of Char- 
lotte, secretary of the Board, I received a long letter from 
Eev. B. M. Smith, D. D., Professor in Union Seminary, 
Virginia ; one from Rev. ^Y. W. Pharr, of Statesville ; two 
from Rufus Barringer, Esq. ; one from Edwin R. Harris, 
Esq., &c., all j)ressing the call upon me most strongly in 
language complimentary and kind, expressive of the exalted 
estimate in which they were pleased to hold me. 

I answered, I suppose, all these letters, as I never failed 
to do during my life, when the letters received required an 
answer, as I considered these communications all preemi- 
nently merited my special and grateful notice. But I kept 
no copies of my replies. My final response, after bestowing 
upon the subject most mature and prayerful consideration, 
was, as far as I now recall it, about to this effect : I ex- 
p)ressed my deep and abiding sense of the unusually flatter- 
ing manner in which I had l^een honored and the favorable 
impression which I had received, and even went so far as to 
■withhold a final declinature of the office to wdiich I had been 
elected. I placed my hesitancy still upon the ground of my 
existing ^^ledge to the Trustees of La Grange College, but 
proposed to postpone an answer until after the approaching 
meeting of the Synod of Memphis, when the subject of my 
election by the La Grange Board would be reported to the 
Synod, and the entire subject in connection with my ac- 



Call to Davidson Collgk 355 

ceptauce or declinature would be decided. To this letter, 
addressed to Eev. Dr. Morrison, President of the Davidson 
College Board, I received in due time the following answer: 

No. 4. 
" Cottage Home, August 13, 1860. 
"Rev. and Dear Bkother : Your kind letter of 23rd of 
July was received in due time, and as 3'ou requested that I 
should reply to it after the meeting of our Board, I will do 
so without delay. I am gratified to say that our trustees 
are so anxious to leave no fair means untried to obtain your 
ser^^ces that they did not go into another election, but agreed 
to await the result of your decision after the meeting of your 
Synod. You will infer, I trust, from this fact, our united 
and earnest anxiety to have you take charge of our College, 
and om- decided hope that Providence may remove the ob- 
stacles in your way I will be gratified to hear from 

you at an early hour after the action of your Synod, 

"And now% dear brother, may the great Head of the 
church direct you and all concerned in this matter to such 
results as may be for His glory. 

" Very truly, your brother in Christ, 

"(Signed) R. H. Morrison." 



CHAPTEK XXXI. 

EouTiNE OF College Work. — Boarding System. — Dormitoky Plan 

DiSCUSCED. 

AS regards the general outline of the system of the Col- 
lege at La Grange, it did not differ materially from the 
ordinary routine of departmental work from that pursued in 
other literary institutions of that day. "We have it recorded 
already in a previous part of this memoir that the students 
of the College were arranged into the regular four classes, 
with the usual names to designate them, viz., Senior, Junior, 
Sophomore, and Freshman, and with the usual appropria- 
tion and assignment of studies belonging to each class, and 
each requiring an academic year for its completion. There, 
as was common in colleges pursuing the regular curriculum, 
we found it necessary, (in order to meet the various demands 
of the educating community around us, which preferred a 
more practical course of instruction for their sons,) that we 
should provide a system of English and scientific study for 
such students. Hence we added what we called the Scien- 
tific Class. Moreover, the deficiency of schools preparatory 
to a collegiate course which existed induced us to establish, 
a Primary Department, wherein boys should be prepared 
for the college or for business pursuits, as parents might 
elect. The Scientific Class was taught by the regular Fac- 
ulty, but the Primary School was kept entirely separate, 
under the control and management of its own instructors, 
and still forming a j)art of the whole system, under the same 
Board of Trustees. Besides this, there was adopted, from 
the very beginning, a different mode of management of the 
boarding and lodging system of students. The old, time- 

356 



College Arrangements. 357 

honored plan of the dormitory for the accommodation of 
students, with its necessary accompaniment of "Commons," 
or "Steward's Hall," was ignored by the founders of La 
Grange College, and for two reasons : 

1. They had no funds provided for such purpose. To be 
sure, there seemed then a fair prospect of raising money for 
the endowment and investing it in productive stock, so that 
the salaries of the Professors might be promptly paid ; and 
that seemed to the Trustees to be the first and most im- 
23ortant object to be secured. So that, having obtained an 
eligible lot of sufficient extent on a beautiful eminence in 
the eastern part of La Grange, a large building of brick was 
erected, consisting of a basement sufficiently capacious to 
accommodate the Primary Department, and two stories 
above that. On the first floor above this basement there 
■were four large rooms for the purposes of recitation and ap- 
j)aratus, and also four of the same size on the second floor 
above. The two rooms on the front were occupied by the 
two Literary Societies, wdiose names were the Phi-Mu and 
the Eunomian ; the two in the rear of these were appro- 
priated to the Library and to recitation uses. The chapel 
was a large room, the dimensions of which were more than 
sufficient to accommodate all the classes at morning prayers, 
and, on Commencement occasions, a very large audience 
could be easily seated. Having accomplished this, the funds 
could not with safety be applied to any additional building. 
It is due to the students, however, to record that, partly 
from a desire to have the halls for regular meetings of their 
Literary Societies more secluded from the main building, 
and partly from their pride in the more respectable and im- 
posing aspect it would give to the College campus, they re- 
solved, each Society for itself, to erect a fine building, to be 
located the one on the north and the other on the south side 
of the avenue leading from the front gate to the entrance 
or portico of the College building, and in convenient distance 



358 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

from it. They had gons so far with the enterprise as to 
have raised, by subscription, very nearly the amount re- 
quired to erect the buildings, when this, with every other 
material improvement, w^as arrested by the discouraging 
prosx^ects of the civil war, and nothing further was attempted 
in this line of operations. 

2, Another reason for rejecting the dormitory system was 
the evil moral influence exerted upon a student body by 
having them thrown together in one building in large num- 
bers, separated from the genial and humanizing influence 
of the family circle ; so that the arrangement was, from the 
beginning, adopted, that the students were to be received 
by the families of the citizens of La Grange, boarding and 
lodging with them as members of the household. The ob- 
jections to the dormitory sj'stem are, in the opinion of many 
experienced educators, numerous and weighty. A few of 
them may be mentioned. 

It is unnatural, because it s\ibstitutes the crowding to- 
gether of young men and boys, instead of the divinely or- 
dained assembly which is recognized as tJte family. It is 
notorious that nothing is more demoralizing, even in the 
case of mature men, than that they gather in crowds in 
any capacity habitually, in clubs, from which are excluded 
the more elevated class of females. This is found to be more 
universally the case among boys and immature young men. 

This danger is greatly aggravated by their being congre- 
gated together in adjacent sleej^ing chambers at night. 
Instead of spending their time in application to study, 
which is the prime object in view in this system, they are 
tempted to visit each other, to play at unlawful games, or to 
go out, under cover of the darkness of night, to places 
utterly ruinous to health and morals. 

But in reply to this it has been supposed, and urged as a 
preservative influence, that members of the Faculty are gen- 
erally on the ground, and that it is made a part of their 
duty to visit the rooms of the students, especially at night. 



The Dormitory Plan in Colleges. 359 

and thus to enforce the requisitions of the law in regard to 
keeping their rooms and studying. In answer to that, while 
I admit that the system of the dormitory for college stu- 
dents seems to demand something of this sort, I hold at the 
same time that it constitutes one of the most serious and 
grave evils connected with it. It makes the Faculty a police 
force, and presupposes that the students are unworth}^ to be 
trusted. " Give a boy a bad name," and he will be tempted 
to win and wear that name, and he will be alienated at once 
from his professor, and the i^rofessor himself will lose his- 
self-respect, and feel degraded by such a system of espion- 
age. If such a thing must be carried out, better convert 
our literary institutions at once into military encampments, 
and our professors into sentinels. I have heard a professor, 
who was trained in the West Point Academy, say that, even 
under the strict regime demanded there, midnight debauch- 
ery and dissipation was by no means rare among the cadets. 
This, from the very nature of the case, could not occur so 
frequently and in so aggravated a manner with student* 
domiciled in refined and respectable families. It is true 
that it is not to be denied that the attractions found in such 
families are sometimes powerful temptations to excessive 
social intercourse, to the neglect of study and preparation 
for scholastic duty, and it may be true that some students 
may be found boarding in such families who cannot be in- 
fluenced, by such surroundings, to anything good. That is 
incident to human nature, and as there are, in all classes of 
mankind, those who break over all restraints, it will not be 
expected that boys, as a class, are to be exceptions to that 
w^hich is universaL Yet, after all, it is indisputable that of 
the two systems — the cloister, or the family — whatever dis- 
advantage may be found incident to the latter is certainly 
overbalanced, and, in some measure, compensated by the 
confessedly refining influences inherent in it, and the ab- 
sence of the more lowering, and (sometimes) degrading 
effects growing out of the former. 



CHAPTEK XXXII. 

The Meeting of the Synod in 1860, and the Final Decision of the 
Question. — The Election of Lincoln. — The Close of the 
Fourth Session of the College, and the End of the College. 

THE question on which I was now to give my final deci- 
sion was one of grave importance, and the consideration 
of the subject gave me great concern. The arguments that 
urged me to decide in favor of La Grange were, that I was 
committed to this enterprise, and, without considering my- 
self as any more essential to its success than any other mem- 
ber of the Faculty, the fact was that no one of the corps of 
instructors could be spared from the College, as such an 
event would be considered a confession of want of confidence 
in the success of the institution. Then there was my pledge 
given to the authorities that I would continue in their ser- 
vice for five years, upon Iheir pledge of support, which thus 
far had been fulfilled. In addition to these facts, I felt that 
the Synod should put forth more united and determined 
and earnest efforts to render the endowment a success, and 
I made up my mind to remain, accepting the presidency of 
La Grange College, on condition that the endowment should 
be, as soon as possible, raised to $200,000, and the salary of 
the President fixed at $2,500. This last item was added in 
consideration of the fact that no house was provided by 
them for the President, whereas the salary of the President 
at Davidson was $2,000, and a residence rent free. When 
the Synod met at Germantown these terms were agreed to, 
and I signified my acceptance of the presidency to which I 
liad been chosen in July. 

I remarked, in my answer to Dr. Morrison's last commu- 
360 



Accepts the Presidency of La Geange. 361 

nication, that the same thing on which he very naturally 
laid such emphasis in my election at Davidson College, viz., 
that the unanimity of the vote immediately followed upon a 
solemn season spent in earnest and united prayer by the 
Board, had occurred in the conduct of the La Grange Board, 
that prayer offered by them was followed by the very 
same result, viz., my unanimous election. Moreover, that 
the interpretation placed upon the action of the Davidson 
board by Dr. Morrison and others was placed by the La 
Grange Board upon their action, that it surely indicated the 
clearest call of divine Providence on me. It could only be 
decided, therefore, b}' other considerations, as the}' pre- 
sented themselves. I accordingly felt constrained to accept 
ihe call of La Grange, highly as I felt myself honored by 
the Davidson Board, and grateful as I acknowledged their 
kindness through the whole transaction. 

On the adjournment of the Synod we resumed work in the 
College, with full numbers, and with no audible mutterings 
of the coming storm in the political sky until in November, 
1860, when the whole southern j^art of the country was, as 
by an earthquake, shaken to its centre by the election of 
Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the United States. 

The effect of this event upon the progress of the 
^finances of the college was disastrous, as has been already 
stated in the former pages of this memoir. Yet, strange to 
record, few of the people of the South felt apprehensive of 
actual war. I even recall a public meeting (not very largely 
attended, it is true,) when a certain speaker took the ground 
that there was no reason for serious apprehension; that 
Mr. Lincoln would make a wise and good President, and 
all things would come right, etc., etc. But when South 
Carohna was rapidly followed by State after State in seces- 
sion ordinances, and all efforts for a peaceful adjustment by 
conventions of committeemen in "Washington City failed to 
effect any satisfactory arrangement, and war seemed inevi- 



362 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

table, then "we began to realize that perilous times were 
upon us and before us. 

The excitement, which was spreading far and wide over 
the country, was quickly felt among all the student-bodies 
of the Southern colleges and universities. Our students 
were greatly aroused, and at a meeting called to consider 
the state of matters, especially as concerned those of them 
who were old enough to enlist in the army, a very animated 
discussion was engaged in, strong and eloquent speeches 
were delivered by leading and influential speakers. The 
object, which was a foregone conclusion, was that the exer- 
cises of the institution would be necessarily closed, but the 
matter in debate was, as to the proper manner in which this 
object should be brought about. Some of the most ardent 
and fiery disputants were in favor of summarily ending the 
college o^^erations by an unceremonious leave-taking and 
departure. But better and wiser counsels prevailed; it. 
was decided that a communication should be laid before the 
Faculty, representing the state of things, and requesting 
that the Senior Class should be permitted to take their De- 
grees of B. A., and that a day should be set for an examina- 
tion of that class. The anniversary of the Eunomian So- 
sciety being published for the 25th April, and not far from 
this date was suggested as the proper time for a delivery 
of the dij)lomas to the class. To this proposal, after some 
deliberation, the Faculty agreed, and accordingly we made 
the arrangement to anticij^ate the usual annual close of the 
term by some two months. Wc examined the Senior Class 
of thirteen, assigned the first honor to W. C. Gray, son of 
Dr. Gray, and decided to divide the second distinction be- 
tween Charles V. Thompson and Henry M. Payne, the former 
of Tennessee, and the latter of Mississippi. As the two so- 
cieties had elected their anniversary orators some time pre- 
viously, viz : Henry M. Payne for the Eunomian, and George 
W. Hope for the Phi-Mu, they delivered their orations, and 



The College in AVar-Times. 365 

■with tbe 2^ublic deliveiy of diplomas we dismissed the stu- 
dents and closed our exercises on April 25, 1861. 

The students who were old enough became greatly ex- 
cited, and many of them at as early a period as possible 
after reaching home volunteered, and joined the various 
companies that were being organized and drilled for the 
Southern army. 

Professors Blake and Meigs of course, retired from ser- 
vice, but as we "broke up in much admired disorder," there 
were no regular resignations, as there was no Board of 
Trustees to receive them, but the dark and dismal futiu'e 
lay out all undiscovered before us. Dr. Gray and I were 
now left alone, so far as work w^as concerned in the college, 
and we were spending a quiet summer in La Grange, yet 
watching with deej^ interest and anxiety the progress of 
affairs throughout the land, both North and South. Thus 
ended the fourth regular session of La Grange College. 
But as yet no hostile tread of the enemy had marked the 
beginning of war's desolating march over our Southern soil, 
but ominous notes of preparation were heard in the dis- 
tance, and the South and the North were assembling their 
forces and accumulating their resources, and massing their 
armaments for the deadly conflict soon to be johied. 

The Synod of Memphis held its annual sessions at the 
the time to which it had adjourned, and the place of the 
meeting was in the College Church, then a strong body of 
Presbyterians in the county of La Fayette, Mississippi, 
about five miles distant from Oxford. Among the matters 
of business demanding the attention of the Sj'nod was the 
state and prospects of La Grange College. The question, 
as to the continuance of its academic operations under the 
discouraging out-look and disturbed condition of the coun- 
try, was, after consideration, decided to the effect, that Dr. 
Gray and I should reopen the College and advertise for stu- 
dents. We were authorized to appoint to the vacant chairs 



364 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

of tlie Faculty, two professors, and call them into service. 
At the earliest possible period after the adjournment of 
Synod, we met and invited to the chair of Mathematics and 
Astronomy, Henry F. Scott, a young man who had been 
g-raduated in 1859, with the highest honors of his class i.n 
the college. To the chair of Chemistry and Natural Phil- 
osophy, we invited Eev. Edwin Cater, then pastor of the 
church in Somerville, while Dr. Gray held his chair of Men- 
tal and Moral Philosophy, and I continued to teach the an- 
cient languages. Thus organized, we began our work wdth 
those young boys of the ages varying from fourteen to seven- 
teen who were still in their La Grange homes, but not long 
after we opened the school students began to arrive from 
distant parts of the country. "We had students from the 
neighborhood of Natchez and Vicksburg. Two of those 
who had belonged to the Junior class of 1860-'61 returned 
and formed our Senior class. The entire number present 
during the term did not exceed thirty. We continued our 
work in this way until the fall of Fort Donaldson. It was 
felt then that the seat of war was drawing so near to us that 
it would be imprudent to undertake our college work, and 
we closed up the institution summarily, and after a credit- 
able final examination of our two seniors admitted them to 
the degree of B. A. It was soon after this that Tennessee 
and Kentucky were invaded by the Federal troojDS, and the 
disastrous battle of Shiloli was fought, w'hich ultimately 
opened the way to the overrunning of Tennessee and Missis- 
sippi to a considerable extent. La Grange was visited on 
some three or four different occasions by raiding parties, 
but it was not permanently occupied until toward the close of 
the year 1862, when after the fall of Corinth the Northern 
army was massed in heavy force on the Memj)his and 
Charleston R. P., covering a stretch of country some ten 
miles in length, and even more planting themselves in force 
at various points, to the terror and distress of the inhabi- 



"War Experiences. 365 

tants. The town from that time was never free from a garri- 
son, more or less numerous and troublesome, until the close 
of the war. I remained in the place with my family, consist- 
ing of my two daughters and my youngest boy, (the elder 
son, George, having volunteered just after the fall of Fort 
Donaldson,) and "was subjected to very great aggravations 
and annoyances. I was forced to give up my house as the 
head-quarters of the notorious Gen. John A. Logan, who 
allowed me two back rooms for my ow^n use, and another 
for my daughters, while he occu23ied the parlor for his own 
use, and my study was the office of his chief of stalf, or A. 
A. G. He remained there three weeks, and while he did not 
subject me to any insult or outrage, yet he and his aid kept 
the house and the yard crowded with squads of private sol- 
diers by day, and they w^ere frequently engaged in Bacchana- 
lian revels at night. The consequence of all this was that 
when the General wdth his troops evacuated the premises, the 
rooms occupied by them presented the appearance of hav- 
ing been occupied by any class of tenants but that of 
gentlemen. The furniture was injured, carpets, etc., were 
trampled by muddy feet of soldiers, as it was held by Logan 
during a spell of rainy weather, so that there was nothing 
decent about the premises. I will only add, by anticij^a- 
tion, to this, that the Federal soldiers w^ho w^ere left in La 
Grange (when the main body of the army w^as ordered 
South through Mississippi), as they remained there, succes- 
sively in one set or another as a garrison, tore down the Col- 
lege building and used the bricks to build huts, and chim- 
neys to their tents, until there was hardly a vestige left, or 
trace of the La Grange College to indicate the spot where 
it once stood. With this ends the story of La Grange Col- 
lege. 



CHAPTER XXXIIL 

PuKTHER Notes of War Experience in La Grange, and my Escape 
FROM THE Lines. 

AFTER the advance southward of Grant's army, inciad- 
ing the corps commanded by General Logan and that 
of General Sherman, I remained in La Grange surrounded 
on all sides by the rude soldiery, and suffered much grievous 
annoyance from them. There resided in La Grange a South- 
ern man, a merchant, who was a Union man, wholly un- 
principled, and when the army of Grant occupied the town 
he was among the first to make fair weather with the Fed- 
eral authorities. It so came about that, being personally a 
devoted friend of Dr. Gray, he interceded with the com- 
mander to allow Dr. Gray to take a modified form of alle- 
giance, and thus be protected from the marauding bands. 
He had formed an idea, too, that such a privilege would be 
accorded to me. But the officer, an upstart in a little brief 
authority, refused to admit me to any such leniency, as he 
decided that I was too great a rebel. On a certain Satur- 
day morning, as I was seated in my room, 1 had placed in 
my hands by an orderly a communication from this Provost- 
marshal, who was in command at that time in La Grange, 
which was thus expressed: 

" Pkovost-Marshal's Office, 

"La Grange, Tenn., Bee. 13, 1862. 
"Rev. J. N. Waddel, 

"Sm: Until you have identified yourself as a citizen of 
the United States, by renewing your allegiaiace to the gov- 

366 



War Experiences. 367 

temment and constitution thereof, j^ou will discontinue 
your laljors as a minister of the gospel in this place. 

" You have hitherto used all the means in your power to 
aid this ' wicked ' rebellion, and your labors have been suc- 
cessful in creating suiTering and death amid a once happy 
people. Instead of being an humble follower of our Saviour, 
endeavoring to save a dying world from their sins, you have 
stirred dissensions, created estrangements in families, and 
urged 'vile treason' toward the best government that God 
ever created upon earth. 

" Instead of proving yourself a bright and shining light, 
you have sown the seeds of darkness, disunion, dissensions, 
and death. All your blessings have changed into curses. I 
trust you have seen the error of your ways, and that you will 
acknowledge the justice of these plain-sj)oken words. 
" EespectfuUy, your obedient servant, 

"F. F. Peats, Major and Pr ovost- Marshal. '^ 

When I read this note, I was convinced that it was de- 
signed to frighten me into doing what was then considered 
the deepest disgrace among Southerners, viz. : the taking the 
oath of allegiance, and as I not only was unwilling to take 
a course such as to incur the odium of such an act, as I was 
determined not to violate my conscience, I made up my 
mind to avoid any collision with the authorities. Dr. Gray 
and I had never discontinued our alternate preaching in the 
church on account of the presence of the Federal army, 
who had attended divine service in large crowds during their 
occupation of the place. I had an appointment to preach 
in the La Grange church for the very next day (Sabbath, 
14th December), and had made no other calculation than to 
fill the pulpit as usual. But the receipt of this order from 
the redoubtable Major Peats, brought me to a decision which 
induced a reconsideration of my plan, not only in regard to 
the next day, but also in connection with my future course, 



368 John N. Waddel, B. D., LL. D. 

for an indefinite period. I determined to remain at home 
on the next day and decline to fill the appointment. I be- 
lieved that there had been a plan concocted by the Major 
and others to allow me to enter the pulpit and then to arrest 
me for disobedience of orders, and the next step would be 
to require me to take the oath of allegiance, and if I should 
refuse to do so, I took it for granted that I should be sent 
to some Northern prison. I had no opportunity to consult 
"with friends, but committed the whole matter to God, im- 
j)loring divine guidance and protection. Accordingly, at the 
usual hour for Sabbath-school services, my children went to 
the churcli, and, by my authority, stated to the superinten- 
dent that I should not preach that morning. I spent the time 
alone during the hours devoted to the Sabbath-school. I 
learned that there was the usual crowd of Federal officers 
and soldiers in attendance, and, if my conjectures in regard 
to the proposed arrest were correct, there perhaps was a dis- 
appointment felt by those w^ho were admitted to a knowledge 
of the plan, that I failed to caiTy out the part of the pro- 
gramme that had been assigned to me. But perhaps I may 
not have interpreted the authorities correctly ; I knew that 
such things had occurred with others, and I supposed that 
they might occur in my case. At all events, I had no more 
intercourse with Maj. Peats, or any other of the officers then 
in La Grange, with regard to my acting as a minister, or on 
any other subject whatever. But the conclusion to which 
my mind was tending, and to which it was ultimately 
brought, was, that La Grange was no suitable place for my 
residence; and I formed the resolution to make my escape 
from the Federal lines at the earliest possible period. 

I shaped my course deliberately and in consultation with 
only two of my friends, one of whom was my brother-in-law 
and devoted friend. Dr. Gray, and the other friend was my 
kind and prudent neighbor, and family phj'sician. Dr. J. J. 
PuUiam. With these friends I held frequent conferences, 



"War Experiences. 369 

and the plan ultimately adopted will now be stated. Twa 
or more matters of prime importance were to be provided 
for, and arranged to make every part of tlie plan a success. 

1. As I must leave my cliildren behind, it was necessary 
that some place should be secured for them, as I knew that 
all my household would be ransacked and everything acces- 
sible w^ould be confiscated as soon as my escape should be- 
come known. It was arranged that they should be taken at 
once to the residence of Dr. Gray, and make that their home 
until I should be enabled to make other arrangements. 

2. Trans^Dortation by private conveyance must be ob- 
tained, as even if the trains should be running, it w^ould be 
manifestly impossible for me to take that method of escape, 
as my movements must be of the most secret nature. It was 
so ordered, in the providence of God, that a friend of Dr. 
Gray's had not long previously made him a present of a xery 
fine horse, and there was an absolute certainty, or, at least, 
the strongest probabihty, that if the horse should be kept 
in the stable, or on his j^remises, it would be taken by the 
soldiers who occupied the town, and that he should lose his 
horse. It was decided, therefore, that I should take the 
animal and ride him on my unknown journej^ Further- 
more, Dr. Gray's son-in-law had just come to La Grange a 
short time previous to its occupancy by the army, and w^as 
on a visit to his family, from some post where he had beea 
stationed by the Confederate authorities. Of course, it was 
a matter of the last importance that he should leave the 
lines of the Federal army at the earliest period possible. 
He had his own horse already provided, and only waited the 
proper time for a secret departure. He and I agreed to go 
together, but when, and by what route, remained to be de- 
termined. 

3. There were three young boys, one a son of Dr. Gray,, 
another a son of a friend of ours in La Grange, and m}- 
youngest boy. Gray, w^ho, on Wednesday morning, 17th De- 



"370 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

cember, were directed to go out and ascertain at what points 
on the north side of the corporate limits of the town the 
picket sentinels were stationed whose business it was to halt 
all j)ersons attempting to pass out of the lines. They re- 
ported that the pickets were stationed on the line about a 
half-mile apart, and just where parties would probably pass 
who should attempt to go outside the lines, and, very fortu- 
nately for us, there was a deep valley of forest between the 
two points guarded. \Ye made our arrangements then, that 
at a late hour in the afternoon we should pass through this 
Talley afoot, wdthout baggage, while our friend, Dr. Pul- 
liam, who had a pass from the Provost-Marshal, to practice 
his profession outside the limits of the town, agreed to have 
our horses conveyed through the region where the army was 
•encamjDed, and along the high road, which he did without 
I'isk, and without suspicion. Our destination for that night 
"was at the hospitable home of a wealthy j)lanter. Captain J. 
"W. Jones, a warm friend, and as he had a large crop of cot- 
ton, the Yankee cotton buyers, who w-ere camp followers, 
always, of the Federal arm^-, had made a purchase of him, 
and a neighbor of ours was employed to go out and bring 
the cotton in with his wagons. So Dr. P. joined the wagon 
train with our horses, one of which was to be coupled along- 
side of the team, and the other (my saddle horse) was to be 
led by some outrider, and we were to meet the cavalcade 
•after our tramp through the intervening valley. Our jDlan 
•succeeded admirably, except in a single point — the horse to 
be ridden by my companion utterly refused to be a party to 
the arrangement, and had to be sent back to town. This 
•did not break up the plan at all, for my fellow-traveller 
mounted the wagon and I received my horse as prepared, 
and so, without further interruption, we reached Captain 
Jones' hospitable mansion, and spent the night safely and 
comfortably. "We were still fiir from being secure, as we 
were distant only six miles from headquarters, and we felt 



Leaves La Grange. 371 

that there was a possibility of our being pursued and. arrested 
should it be discovered that we had left. Our good friend. 
Dr. P., managed to hire a servant to ride the recusant horse 
out to our retreat after dark, and so Ave found ourselves 
ready to pursue our journey south on the next morning, 
after a night of refreshing rest. 

Having furnished myself with money, both of Confederate 
and greenback currencj^, we commenced our journey on the 
18th December, 1862, and by a kind Providence were ena- 
bled to leave behind all peril of pursuit, and we paused 
nowhere until we reached Central Mississix^pi, and from 
that time until the close of the war I lost sight of the Fed- 
eral ai'my, both in whole and in part. 



CHAPTER XXXIY. 

Effect op the War upon the Presbyteries of the South. — Dr 
Spring's Kesolutions. — Atlanta Contention. — Organization of 
THE General Assembly, on December 4, 1861. 

IT becomes necessary now that we should retrace the his- 
tory, and take up some of the "dropped threads" of the 
narrative, in order that the events of those troublous times 
may move on as nearly pari passu as may be, considering 
the varied and diversified interests, and departments which 
were so deej^ly affected by the terrible convulsions of war. 
Among those matters which were brought into collision in 
this disastrous period of our history, none were more seri- 
ously affected and threatened than those of the churches, and 
especially the Presbyterian Church. The condition of the 
country, both North and South, in the Spring of 1861, after 
the beginning of hostile preparations, was such that the 
Northern people were perfectly infuriated toward the South, 
and the various ecclesiastical bodies of the Southern Pres- 
byterian Church felt little inclination to send commissioners 
to represent them in the General Assembly in May. In- 
deed, few went to the Assembly from the South. When 
those who did attend were known to be in Philadelphia, 
irresponsible ruffians issued anonymous proposals to hang 
them as rebels and traitors to the lamp-posts on the streets. 
When, therefore, the famous "Spring Eesolutions" were 
presented in the Assembly, and, with slight modification, 
passed, though under solemn protest by Dr. Hodge and 
others, the die was cast as to Southern sentiment among 
Presbyterians ; and it was but a question of time as to a 

372 



The Atlanta Contention. 373 

definitive dissolution of the bond of ecclesiastical union 
between the Southern and Northern Presbyterians. At 
separate meetings of various Presbyteries, from Yn-ginia 
to Texas, resolutions were adopted withdrawing themselves 
from the Northern Presbyterians, and, as the proceedings 
were published all over the land, a proposition was made 
to send delegates from these bodies to Atlanta, to meet in 
convention, and discuss the situation and concert measures 
for united action. This was adopted by eleven Presbyte- 
ries, and, accordingly, the delegates met in the First Pres- 
byterian Church of Atlanta, and continued in session during 
the 15th, 16th, and 17th of August, 1861. After much 
consideration, touching the state of the church, the follow- 
ing recommendations were, on the third day, unanimously 
r.dopted, viz.: 

"1. That all the Presbyteries which have passed an act 
dissolving their connection with the General Assembly of 
the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, 
at the ensuing Fall sessions, declare their adherence and 
submission to the Confession of Faith, Form of Government, 
Book of Discipline, and Directory for Worship, wath the 
single change of the phrase from that of 'Presbyterian 
Church in the United States of America' to that of 'Presby- 
terian Chui-ch in the Confederate States of America'; and 
that such Presbyteries as have not renounced the jurisdic- 
tion of the General Assembly aforesaid by a formal act, 
should at the ensuing Fall sessions take such action as may 
be necessary to effect a union in a General Assembly with 
their sister Presbyteries in the South. 

"2. That these Presbyteries send commissioners, accord- 
ing to the former rule of representation, to a General As- 
sembly, to be held in the city of Augusta, in the First 
Presbyterian Church, on the fourth day of December next; 
and that the Rev. Dr. B. M. Palmer, as principal, and the 
Eev. Dr. Wilson (pastor of said church), be requested to 



374 John N. AVaddel, D. D., LL. D. 

preacli the opening sermon, and to preside until tlie Assem- 
bly be organized, and a moderator and clerk be chosen. 

"3. That the Kev. Drs. Waddel and Gray, of the Pres- 
bytery of Memphis, and Dr. Joseph Jones, of Augusta, Ga., 
ruling elder, be a Committee on Commissions, to examine 
the credentials of all who may present themselves at that 
meeting; and that these brethren be requested to be pre- 
sent, in the First Presbyterian Church, in the city of Au- 
gusta, on the evening previous to the meeting of the General 
Assembly. 

" 4. That the Presbyteries which have passed an act re- 
nouncing the jurisdiction of the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, do 
declare, that in that act they did not design to withdraw 
from their sister Presbyteries in the South, nor to dissolve 
their Synods. 

"That all the Presbyteries in the Confederate States 
send up their records to their respective Synods, for re- 
view, and that the Synods confirm the action herein j)ro- 
posed " 

The Convention (in explanation of the motives for organ- 
izing a New Assembly), after quoting what is known as the 
"Spring Resolutions," adopted the following: 

"By this act of the Assembly (at Philadelphia, May, 1861,) 
a large proportion of the churches under its care felt them- 
selves aggrieved, not because they disputed the right of the 
Assembly to give a deliverance upon any question of duty 
growing out of their several relations, civil, social, and eccle- 
siastical, but because, during a state of war between two 
sections of the Confederacy formerly known as the United 
States of America, one of which had found it necessary to 
withdraw from the other, to establish an independent gov- 
ernment of its own, and to resort to arms in maintenance 
of its rights, and in defence against threatened invasion of 
Ijarbaric character, the Assembly assumed the right of 



The Spring Resolutions. 375 

determining the political status of every member of every 
church under its care, a right inherent in the State, and 
not in the church; and in the assumption of this right, 
enjoined upon said members the performance of acts which, 
as to those residing within the Confederate States, were 
absolutely treasonable, in view of the political relations 
established for them by those States./ 

I am not absolutely certain that the Presbytery of Mem- 
phis, to which I belonged, was the first to renounce the juris- 
diction of this Assembly, which adopted the Spring Resolu- 
tions. If not the first, at any rate, that Presbytery was 
among the first to decide upon Avithdrawal. It cannot be 
improper to insert a copy of the famous document known as 
the "Spring Resolutions," which was productive, in its influ- 
ence upon the Southern Presbyteries, of their withdrawal 
from the Presbyterian General Assembly of the United 
States of America. Pew of the younger generation of the 
Southern Piesbj'terians know exactly its nature and spirit,, 
and it is well to preserve a copy of it for reference. It is as. 
follows : 

" ResoUed, That this General Assembly, in the spirit of 
Christian patriotism which the Scriptures enjoin, and which: 
has always characterized this church, do hereby acknow« 
ledge and declare our obligation to promote and j^erpetuate, 
so far as in us lies, the integrity of these United States, and 
to strengthen, uphold and encourage the Federal govern- 
ment in the exercise of all its functions under our noble 
constitution; p.nd to this constitution, in all its provisions, 
requirements and j)i'iiiciples, we profess our unabated loy- 
alty. And to avoid all misconception, the Assembly declares 
that, by the term ' Federal Government,' as here used, is 
not meant any jDarticular administration, or the peculiar 
opinions of any particular i:)arty, but that central adminis- 
tration which, being at any time appointed, and inaugurated 
according to the forms prescribed in the constitution of the 



376 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

United States, is the visible representative of our national 
existence." 

It must be stated that this action of the General Assembly 
•^vas taken after nearly all the Confederate States had seceded, 
and so the entire body of the church within the bounds of 
those States was in effect driven out of the connection and 
fellowship of the Presbyterian Church. I proceed to say, 
using the language of Dr. J. E. Wilson, in his memorial 
address, delivered by him on the occasion of the Quarter- 
Centennial Anniversary of the Organization of the General 
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. 
Speaking of the convention just referred to, Dr. "Wibon 
says : 

" It was in response to a request on the part of this excep- 
tional body of trusted brethren, that all the Presbyteries 
addressed — not one excepted — were here not many months 
afterward, regularly represented in accordance with the an- 
cient forms, and in every instance by a delegation of minis- 
ters, in whose number there was not a single blank, as also, 
save in the case of a few of the far-distant constituencies, by a 
full commission of ruling elders, making altogether an author- 
ized membership of ninet^^-three, and possessed, as a whole, 
it soon became apj^arent, of an unusually high average of 
Christian character and mental ability, whilst some of them, 
conspicuous above the many, would have adorned the church 
in any age or countr3^ On a mild Tuesday morning, although 
it was now the beginning of winter, this novel assemblage 
was, at eleven in the morning, " called to order " by one of 
the most dignified of its members, but of whom, being now 
2^resent, I may not, without indelicacy, say anything further 
■ — Rev. Dr. John N. "Waddel — and who, you are glad to 
know, is expected to take a leading part in these memorial 
services. He, with two others — Rev. Dr. John H. Gray and 
Dr. Joseph Jones — had, with well-directed judgment, been 
named by many of the Presbyteries, as likewise by the At- 



Address of Rev. Joseph R. Wilson, D. D, 377 

lanta convention, to constitute the Committee on Commis- 
sions; and, as chairman of this committee, it became his 
pre-arranged duty to utter the inceptive words of organiza- 
tion. And, upon his motion, the Rev. Francis McFarland, 
D. D., one of the most venerable commissioners j^i'^sent, 
and who, five years before, had been the singularly able 
Moderator of the old Assembly, was appointed temporarily 
to preside." 

It will be remembered that, in the Atlanta convention, it 
was recommended unanimously, that " the Rev. Dr. B. M. 
Palmer, as principal, or, the Rev. Dr. Wilson (pastor of the 
church), be requested to preach the opening sermon, and to 
preside, until the Assembly be organized and a moderator 
and clerk be chosen." 

I resume Dr. Wilson's words here : 

"The opening sermon on that solemn occasion was 
preached from the admirably-chosen words of inspiration 
found in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians : 
*'And gave him to be head over all things to the church, 
"which is his body, the fulness that filleth all in all." 

" I go on, therefore, to say that on the day following that 
on which Dr. Palmer delivered his remarkable sermon, he 
w^as, by acclamation, elected to the moderator's chair, and 
two days subsequently Dr. Waddel and your present speaker 
'were respectively chosen to fill the offices of stated clerk and 
of permanent clerk. 

" Thus, with the addition of the Rev. Dr. D. McNeill Tur- 
ner as temporary clerk, the first Assembly was duly and 
fully organized." 

This brings into view the method pursued and adopted 
by the Southern Presbyteries in the organization of what 
was then known as the "General Assembly of the Presbyte- 
rian Church in the Confederate States of America," but, 
after the close of the v/ar, when the "Confederate States" 
as a government became a thing of the past, the title of the 



378 John N. Waddill, D. D., LL. D. 

Assembly was so modified as to read thus: "The General 
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States/* 
leaving off the two words, "of America." Still the church 
was known by the former name all through the war, and 
was not changed to the present title until the meeting of 
the Assembly in Macon, Ga., in December, 1865. 

The proceedings of the first General Assembly, in Augusta, 
Ga., Avere characterized by great dignity and solemn earn- 
estness of purpose, accompanied b}' much fervent prayer for 
divine guidance. Conspicuous among the commissioners 
and /acile 2')rince2ys, as a leader in every important measure, 
was James H. Thornwell. He was a member of many im- 
portant committees, and his influence was weighty and 
effective in the deliberations of the body. The Assembly, 
at an early period in its sessions, resolved, on motion of Dr. 
Thornwell, to appoint "a committee consisting of one min- 
ister and one ruling elder from each of the Synods belonging- 
to this Assembly to prepare an address to all the churches 
of Jesus Christ throughout the earth, setting forth the causes 
of our separation from the churches of the United States, 
our attitude in relation to slaver}-, and a general view of the 
policy which, as a church, we propose to pursue." Of this 
committee Dr. Thornwell was appointed chairman, and pre- 
pared and read an elaborate address, which was received 
and adopted. Three thousand copies of this address were 
ordered to be printed for the use of the Assembly, and that 
the original address be filed in the archives of the Assem- 
bly, and that it be signed by the moderator and members of 
the Assembly," all of which was done. This address is 
found in the Appendix to the Minutes of that Assembly, 
occupjdng ten closely printed j)ages, beginning on page 51. 

The bodies having charge of Missions, Home and Foreign, 
Education, Publication, etc., w^ere styled "Executive Com- 
mittees," not *' Boards," as is the plan pursued by the 
Northern Assembly. 



First General Assembly Organized. 379^ 

Dr. Palmer's opening sermon was ^^ublished also by order 
of the Assembly, in tlie Appendix to tlie Minutes, and will 
be found on page 61. 

Dr. J. Leigliton Wilson was elected Secretary of Foreign 
Missions; Dr. John Ley burn, of Domestic Missions; Dr. 
Jolm H. Gray, of "Education," and Dr. William Brown, of 
Publication. 

Columbia, South Carolina, was chosen as the location for 
the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions ; New Orleans 
for Domestic Missions, Richmond, Va., for Publication, and 
Memphis for Education. 

These Executive Committees continued to act as four sep- 
arate and distinct bodies, with each its own secretary and 
treasurer, at the several locations as above stated, until the 
session of the Assembly in May, 1863, at which time it was 
decided to combine theExecutive Committees of Education 
and Publication together, with the same secretary, treasurer 
and members, and location, and to make the same arrange- 
ment in regard to the Executive Committees of Foreign and 
Domestic Missions. Dr. Gray having resigned the secre- 
taryship of Education, and the city of Memphis being within, 
the enemy's lines, and the same thing being true of Dr. Ley- 
burn, that his location was in the hands of the Federal 
army, and the Committee of Domestic Missions in danger 
from that cause, on the occasion of the meeting of the As- 
sembly in Columbia, it was determined that Education and 
Publication should be united at Richmond, Ya., and as Dr. 
William Brown had resigned the office of secretary of Pub- 
lication, Dr. John Leyburn was elected his successor. The 
Committee of Domestic Missions was transferred to Colum- 
bia, South Carolina, and combined with that of Foreign Mis- 
sions. Both were put under the care of the original Execu- 
tive Committee, with Dr. J. Leighton Wilson as secretary. 
This "was designed, however, as a temporary arrangement, 
to which the Assembly was forced by the pressure of tho 



380 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

times. These items of information arc all accessible to the 
curious, as they can be found in the Minutes of the General 
Assembly of 1861, and of 1863. To these Minutes I refer 
all inquii'ers, and only add to these items and facts some 
things of less jDublic interest, but which will be found to have 
close connection with this history. 



CHAPTER XXXy. 

Return to La Grange — Continuation of the War Record, and 
Personal Incidents. 

AT the close of this first Assembly, I found myself within 
fifty miles of my native soil, in Abbeville District, South 
Carolina, and as I had met in Augusta several of my old friends, 
who were there attending as sj)ectators, I received pressing 
invitations to go up and pay them a visit before going west. 
I accepted their call, and spent a week, more or less, in that 
familiar old region of country. I preached during the time 
in my father's old church, visited my mother's grave, where 
her dust had been resting for more than thirty years, saw 
many old friends, w^ho were young when we parted, a quar- 
ter century before, and some who were in childhood then 
who had come to maturer years, and outgrown my know- 
ledge altogether; and again I set my face westward. 

At the time to which I refer La Grange was free from 
hostile occupancy, and I returned, and began the year 1862 
with my family and friends, in peace and tranquillit}^ "with 
none to molest or to make us afraid." But these quiet times 
were of short duration. On the 17th of February, of that 
year, Fort Donaldson fell, and very soon after that Federal 
gunboats ascended the Tennessee river, and reached Flor- 
ence, Alabama. We have already recorded the fact that we 
had closed the supplementary exercises of the La Grange Col- 
lege just at that time, after the regular fourth session had 
been interrupted prematurely, by anticipation, on the 25th 
April, 1861. We also, as already stated, held an examina- 
tion of the only two young men who had belong-^d to our 
Junior Class of 1860-'61, and who had returned after the 

381 



382 John N. Waddel, D. T>., LL. D. 

battle of Manassas and had been admitted to tlie Senior Class. 
We admitted them to graduation in February, and closed 
the college for the time. This was followed by the enlist- 
ment of both these young men in the army. One of them 
w^as James D. West, who had married my oldest daughter 
just before the battle of Manassas, and, in half an hour after 
the marriage ceremony, performed by myself, on Sabbath 
morning, had taken the train on the M. & C. E. R., and left 
his bride with me, and joined the Southern army in Vir- 
ginia. To make the story short, let me say, that he arrived 
in time to take his place in the ranks on the field of battle, 
SLud came out unscathed, only to fall into camp-fever, which 
came near to a fatal termination. On the following week, 
or perhaps ten days after the battle, I received a dispatch 
from a friend of his from Lynchburg, Va., stating that he 
was dangerously ill at the house of a friend. As soon as 
possible I left home, with his newly married wife, and reached 
Lynchburg on Sabbath morning, just two weeks from the 
day of their marriage, and found him prostrate and uncon- 
scious, under the hospitable roof of Samuel McCorkle, Esq., 
a noble patriot and elder of our church, who was afterwards 
a member of the Assembly of 1861. AVe remained with my 
soldier son-in-law three weeks, and, by the blessing of a kind 
Providence, he became convalescent, and we returned to La 
Grange. As he was regularly discharged on account of 
his sickness, he employed the time in finishing his scholastic 
course of study in the college at La Grange, preparatory to 
the gospel ministry. The other young man who was gradu- 
ated at the same time with young West, was William F. 
Markham, a first-class student, of great promise, who joined 
the army soon afterwards, and met his death in one of the bat- 
tles that occurred in the neighborhood of Atlanta, J. D. West 
also re-entered the army in Mississippi, and was in the Divis- 
ion of General J. E. Johnson when near Marietta, and was 
captured, with some others, in some of the many skirmishes 



Among Army Movements. 383 

thereabouts, carried to Jolinsou's Island, and held as a pris- 
oner until the close of the war. He had pursued his studies 
in camp, under the direction of the Presbytery of Cherokee, 
and had been licensed, just before his capture, having ob- 
tained leave of absence just long enjugh to pass his exami- 
nation by the Presbyter}-, at Marietta, Ga. 

On the occasion of the closing of our school, in Feln'uary, 
1862, not only did West and Markham enter the army as 
soldiers, but Professor Scott, one of the teachers, and my 
son, George, then seventeen, with Robert Loughridge, son 
of the missionary to the Creek Indians, also enhsted in the 
army, and I accompanied them to Columbus, Ky., w'here 
General Polk was encamped with a division of the Southern 
army, and they were enrolled as volunteers for the w^ar. I 
soon ascertained that this encampment was about to be 
broken up, and the place was to be evacuated at once, hav- 
ing been ordered to Jackson, Tenn. This arrangement 
rendered it necessary for me to go along with the army, 
and return to La Grange by rail, instead of by the Missis- 
sippi river. All this movement of Polk's division was only 
a part of the preparation then going on, in various parts of 
the army, to concentrate a large force at Corinth (where 
the Mobile and Ohio Railroad crossed the Memphis and 
Charleston Railroad), preliminary to the battle fought at 
Shiloh, on the Gth and 7th of April, between General Albert 
Sidney Johnson, of the Southern forces, and General Grant, 
of the Northern army. 

I rode on a freight-car loaded with tents, etc., and accom- 
panied by many soldiers, and with a long train of freight- 
cars laden with the munitions of w^ar, all the way to Jackson, 
the weather bsing extremely cold, as it was late in March. 
After the battle of the 7th, we recsived a telegram at La 
Grange from W. C. Gray, to the effect that he and my boy, 
George, had escaped safely, but that their companion, 
Loughridge, was badly wounded. Yv'e had just returned 



384 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

from the Spring meeting of the Presbytery of Memphis, 
when we met the sad tidings of that disastrous battle. The 
death of General Johnson, on the field, shed intense gloom 
over the land, and then the capture of General Prentiss, of 
the Federal arm}', with over three thousand prisoners, and 
immense quantities of stores gathered up, all created great 
excitement among the people. Accordingly, on Tuesday 
afternoon, in company with crowds of passengers, going to 
Corinth to look after their friends in the army. Dr. Gray 
and I, having packed up a goodly store of provisions, took 
passage on the train for Corinth. We reached that point 
about midnight, in the midst of a terrific storm of thunder, 
lightning, wind, and rain. I have often thought, on re- 
curring to the scenes of that night, that they were certainly 
invested with as many of the elements of gloom and horror 
as I had ever witnessed. We made our way through mud 
and mire to the hotel, a large wooden building near the 
depot, and on the platform and veranda we found multi- 
tudes of sick, wear}^, and wounded soldiers, who 

" Had sunk on the ground overpowered, 
The weary to rest, and the wounded to die." 

All was dark, and the storm still raged. Ever and anon, 
the roar and crash of the loud thunder, and the vivid light- 
ning-flash added increasing horror to the scene. Not a 
light was visible, save one dim ray, streaming with difficulty 
through the almost palpable darkness, from a tallow candle 
in a room on one side of the house. Thither we directed 
our steps, and inquired of a sleepy, weary woman, who sat 
alone auiid a surrounding mass of the sick, dying, or dead, 
if she knew anything of the Thirteenth Tennessee Regi- 
ment? Our boys belonged to that regiment. She knew 
nothing of them. Turning back we made our way to a 
large room, which might have been the reception-room, or 
bar of the hotel. And here we were met with the same 



After the Battle of Shiloh. 38i> 

sights, of the dirty, muddy floor, covered over T\ith sleepers ; 
so we concluded to go up stairs (as we gathered no tidings- 
of our boys), and rest contented, if possible, till the dawn- 
ing of the day, when we might renew our search under 
more favorable auspices. "We sat on the steps, having no 
spot large enough to admit of lying down at full length, 
half-reclining and half-sitting; we remained in this condi- 
tion, until the first light of day broke in on us. In this- 
condition we were unable to sleep; for, ever and anon, 
groans and curses were heard from many a poor wounded 
soldier, and persons were passing up and down the stair- 
way, stepping on and over us, and the droppings of their 
their shoes and boots falling upon us. As soon as we could 
see to walk we abandoned our filthy quarters, and ascertain- 
ing that the camp of the Thirteenth Tennessee Regiment 
lay three miles north of Corinth, and learning nothing of our 
boys at the hotel, we walked out to the camp. It was a 
dark and gloomy morning, and our route lay up the track of 
the railroad, and as the ground was muddy and slippery, 
and as I carried a large pair of saddle-bags filled with pro- 
visions, it may be readily believed that, by the time we 
reached the camp, I was somewhat exhausted. We found 
our boys there resting, after the battle of Shiloh, or, as it 
was also named "Pittsburg Landing," and spent the day in 
camp. Dr. Gray remained there until young Loughridge 
(who had been left behind after the battle among the 
wounded) was brought back, more dead than alive. The 
other boys of our set were left in camp as they w^ere unhm-t. 
But he was conveyed carefully back to La Grange, and ten- 
derly nursed in the home of Dr. Gray, until, contrary to all 
expectation, through assiduous care and the best medical 
skill and attention under God's blessing, he was, after long 
convalescence, so far restored as to return to service, but 
never sufiiciently so to enter the ranks. He became usefuUy^ 
25 



-386 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL.D. 

employed in the hospitals aud in clerical work, to the close 
of the vfar. 

On the way back to La Grange, Kev. R. R. Evans and I 
took a flat car, as there was no better mode of travel 
offered, all the cars belonging to a long train being filled 
with the sick, wounded, and dying soldiers, and after reach- 
ing nearly the end of the route to La Grange the train was 
derailed, and several of the cars containing the wounded 
were thrown off the track and some of the soldiers dread- 
fully crashed. We were thrown off our flat, and deposited 
in safety ten or twenty feet from the track upon a sand 
bank; making a marvelous escape by the kindness of our 
Heavenly Father; and with no further accident we reached 
our homes. The long train, after being replaced on the 
track, proceeded to transport its freight of the wounded 
and helpless soldiers to the hospitals along the route, 
where they were to be cared for. 

The Confederate army la}' at Corinth after the battle of 
Shiloh, recruiting and awaiting the further movements and 
orders from headquarters, for nearly two months. They 
evacuated the place on the 30 th of May, as a Federal force 
of 100,000 men, under the command of General Halleck, was 
led against them. Fort Pillow was abandoned June 4th, 
and Memphis was captured on the 6th, after our little flotilla 
was destroyed. And as New Orleans had been captured on 
the 25th of April, we, in our La Grange homes, were threat- 
ened north, east, south and west, by hostile forces. 

It was about this time that the General Assembly of the 
Southern Presbyterian Church was to meet, according to 
adjournment, in Memphis ; but the fact that this was ren- 
dered impossible in consequence of the invasion of the entire 
region around the city, led to the necessity of our meeting 
in Montgomery, Ala., as that city was, at that time, undis- 
turbed by war, and had been the place voted for as desir- 
able, next to Memphis. Inasmuch, therefore, as I had been. 



Caee for Sick and Wounded 387 

made, at the Augusta Assembly-, Stated Clerk, I made all 
the needed preparations to leave home, and to be present at 
that meeting. I left home in ample time to have reached 
there, and I had gone so far as to Oxford, Miss., my old 
home, when, upon deliberation, and seeking counsel above, 
I decided to return, as I had ever}- reason to apprehend that, 
by pursuing my journey, I should be entirely cut off from 
home by the Federal troops before the time of my return, 
and so be unable to join my family. In this way I failed to 
be present at the Montgomery meeting of the General 
Assembly. 

I have already referred to the fact that I spent the sum- 
mer of 18G2, and until December of that year, in La Grange, 
during which period there were occasional raids upon us by 
the Federals. But about the latter part of April, previous 
to the evacuation of Corinth by our troops, quite a number 
of sick soldiers were sent up from camp to the hospital at La 
Grange, one of whom was my son George, and with him a 
young man from Mississippi, by name Walker, both of 
whom I took into my house to be nursed and attended. Ag 
there were a good many of our soldiers in hospital there, I 
prevailed upon those who had control of the transportation 
on the railroad to send up a sufficient number of box cars 
to La Grange to convey them down into Mississippi, for the 
reason that there was no doubt of the speedy advance of the 
enemy to the place, and the result would bo the capture of 
all these sick soldiers as prisoners. I then had my two sick 
men placed in comfortable cots on board of a close car, and 
accompanying them myself as far down into Mississippi as 
Oxford, left them in the hands and care of friends until they 
recovered sufficiently to rejoin the army at Tupelo, on the 
M. Sc O. E. R. I returned in time to witness the entry of a 
large body of hostile troops into La Grange, on the 13th of 
June. This body of the enemy remained in the possession 
of the place until somewhere about the middle of July, when, 



388 John N. Waddel, D. B., LL. D. 

for some cause or other, I know not why, they evacuated the 
place. Just before they left, as I had every reason to believe 
they were there for permanent occupation, suspecting that 
they would begin very soon depredations, and persecutions 
of all who were not loyal, I left, without their knowledge, 
and visited the army at Tupelo, and spent the Sabbath 
preaching to the troops. After a day or two spent there, I 
learned that the enemy had left La Grange, and I secured a 
safe return to my home, and there remained, with various 
interruptions from the Federal raids, until some time in No- 
vember, when a larger body of Grant's army took possession 
of the town and country, as already stated, and, with one gar- 
rison after another, held possession of it until the close of 
the war. I have now brought my history of these eventful 
times of the country and of the church, evenly up in parallel 
columns, to the time when, as already related, I effected my 
final escape from the hostile lines. 



I 



CHAPTER XXXYL 

Eesumptiox of the Naekatiye of the Escape, axd ]\Iode of Life 
IN Missi3sippi. — FiKST Occupation, a^d Service until the 
Speing of 1873. 

WE— that is Mr. J. O. Hardeman, the son-in-law of Dr. 
Gray, and I — found ourselves, on the morning of the 
second day after our escape through the Federal lines, 
mounted, and leaving the j)remises of our kind and hospita- 
ble friend, Captain Jones. And although we were, in one 
sense, safe, yet we were by no means without some appre- 
hension in regard to our success in prosecuting our onward 
journey south. Marauding and irresponsible parties of 
these reckless soldiers were known to be roving through 
the surrounding country, in search of boot}', or mischief, 
and it was with some misgivings that we commenced our 
ride on that morning. T\e avoided all public roads at the 
outset, and after winding about through paths and unfre- 
quented and unsettled parts of the country along the border- 
land of Tennessee and Mississippi, we found oui'selves, about 
noon of that day, south of the littlo hamlet of Saulsbury, 
only nine miles from La Grange ! Not long after we reached 
a public road leading south. As we began to breathe some- 
what more ireelj, we espied a Federal soldier, as we sup- 
jDosed him to be as he approached, just before us, coming 
on horseback in our front, and meeting us. AYe now felt 
that we were probably at bay, and that we should be 
arrested. But, unaccoimtably, he passed us without inter- 
ruption, and we went on our way without any further inci- 
dent, and with our minds relieved and our hearts lightened. 
We had decided before we left La Grange to divest our- 

389 



390 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

selves of every external kind of baggage, lest it might 
awaken suspicion that we were refugees, should we fall into 
company with any person or persons unknown to us. Hence 
we had nothing like saddle-wallets, or portmanteaus, about 
us, but would have readily passed for persons near home, or 
within their own region of country visiting. The conse- 
quence was that we were clothed with just as many pairs of 
underwear and upper garments as we could draw over our 
persons ; and in this way, while we added to the mass and 
hulk of our jDersons, it became somewhat inconvenient and 
uncomfortable as a style of dress. Still, we bore it in the 
prospect of making our successful journey out of a place 
rendered hateful by the sight of the "Boys in blue," and 
in hope of getting to the free land of Dixie ! 

We arrived in safety about dark at the residence of an old 
friend of mine, a gentleman by the name of Blackwell, a 
planter, whose hospitality I had enjoyed on former occasions^ 
and where I was sure of a cordial welcome. But on first 
arriving we learned to our dismay that the husband and 
father of this worthy family had been arrested by a roving 
band of Southern Yankees, as the}' were styled, and carried 
as a prisoner to the camp of the Federal army in Tennessee, 
and for no other reason than that he was a secessionist in 
principle, though a non-combatant by reason of being over 
age. My recollection now is that, as I afterwards learned from 
others who knew the facts, he refused to take the oath of 
allegiance, and was kept a prisoner until he died of exposure 
and severe privation of all comfort. The lady of the house, 
not recognizing us at first, and being apprehensive of all 
visitors, in consequence of the state of the country, and by 
reason of her recent experience, declined to entertain us. 
But as soon as I made myself known to her she was glad to 
receive and take care of us, and felt herself thankful for our 
visit. 

When we heard from her the story of her husband's cap- 



The Van Dorn Expedition. 391 

ture, and that this roving band of Southern rol^bers were in 
that part of the country, committing the same kind of out- 
rages at other points, we were again thrown into fresh ap- 
prehension lest we might still be overtaken and arrested. 
We rested quietly through the night, and at an early hour 
after breakfast, on the next morning, we mounted and re- 
sumed our onward journey. As we proceeded, however, we 
were met by continual rumors of Yankees being ahead of us, 
and that they had possession of Pontotoc, a town directly on 
our route, and through which we were expecting to pass. 
Nor did we lose our apprehensions until we were met by the 
men of Van Dorn's command, on their way to Holly Springs, 
to cut oif the supj^lies of Gen. Grant's army, which then had 
possession of Oxford, Mississippi. Then we dismissed all 
our fears and felt secure, for the time, of reaching our 
journey's end in perfect safety. A description of this exj)e- 
dition of Van Dorn and his brigade will repay perusal, as it 
certainly was among the most brilliant exploits achieved 
during the war. 

It was at the time when Grant was jDrojecting an inva- 
sion of Mississippi, through the interior of the State, so as to 
capture Vicksburg on the land east of the Mississippi river. 
He had massed a very large force in and around Oxford, and 
while he held possession of the town. General W. T. Sher- 
man was holding his headquarters not far distant in the 
country. Eelying upon the Mississippi Central Eailway for 
transportation of his supplies, he had stationed a garrison of 

some 1,500 men, under command of Colonel , and 

had accumulated an immense quantit}^ and vast stores of all 
sorts of provisions and munitions of war, at the town of 
Holly Springs, distant thirty milus north of Oxford, on the 
railroad. As it was known throughout the country that 
such was the fact, a body of the Confederate cavalry, under 
the command of General Van Dorn, were secretly collected 
with the plan of cutting off the supplies of the army of inva- 



.B92 John N. AVaddel, D. D., LL. D. 

sion, and thus to compel General Grant to abandon his 
grand expedition through Mississippi. Accordingly, with 
about 2,500 cavalry troops, Yan Dorn made very quietly a cir- 
cuitous march far to the east of Grenada, and having arrived 
at a sufficiently safe distance from the enemy, he turned 
northward, through Pontotoc and Chickasaw counties; then 
wmdiug again westward, he made his way through the 
south-east corner of Marshall county, and about daylight of 
the 20th or 21st of December, he dashed into Holly Springs 
with his men, and capturing, by complete surprise, the entire 
garrison of 1,C00 men, proceeded to destroy the whole amount 
of the accumulated stores of General Grant's army, by burn- 
ing and destruction in every way. It was reported that these 
stores, piled up in the court-house and in the railroad dej^ot 
building, and standing on the ground fi'om the town to the 
station, consisting of barrels of flour four deep in a row, and 
other needful supplies, were estimated at a value of millions 
vof dollars, and of all this nothing was saved. 

Whatever truth or exaggeration may have been found to 
T)e the case in these rej)orts, the result proved to be that 
General Grant was compelled to break up his entire plan of 
a Southern campaign, and to retreat with his grand army 
precij^itately to the northward, in the direction of Memphis, 
w'here he employed himself in concerting and preparing 
other, and more promising, plans of campaign. 

As Van Dorn had no artillery and no transportation, ho 
seemed to be satisfied with the success of his expedition, 
and made his way on the west side of the Mississippi Cen- 
tral E. R. safely down to Grenada, whence he had begun his 
inarch. 

To return from this digression, Mr. Hardeman and I had 
fallen in with Van Dorn's men, in straggling companies of 
three or four, as they were on the way to Holly Springs, and 
from them we learned that our way south would be quite safe. 
They told us, furthermore, that the cavalrymen of the enemy 



Among Friends at Meridian. 393 

had been to Pontotoc, but having heard something of Van 
Dorn's expedition, they returned in great haste to Oxford, to 
report to Grant. But they were too late. Van Dorn had 
reached Holly Springs and had accomplished bis purpose. 
We rode on without anything to obstruct our journey, until 
"Wednesday, 24th of December. We separated on that day, 
as we arrived at Shuqualak, a station of the Mobile and Ohio 
E. E. Here Mr. H. relieved me of my faithful friend. Dr. 
Gray's fine horse, and he stopped with a relative who resided 
there. The train passed shortly, and I took a seat for Meri- 
dian, whither I was bound. I was unexpectedly gratified to 
find on the train my friend and brother, Eev. W. C. Emer- 
son, a Presbyterian minister, on his return to his home near 
Meridian, having been on a trip up the country. We arrived 
at our destination about 11:30 o'clock p. m., and, on his in- 
vitation, I spent the night at his house comfortably and 
p)leasantly. I met at Meridian several of my old friends of 
former days, and was kindly welcomed by them all. As Mr. 
Emerson was at this time the stated supply of one of the 
churches to which I had been for several j^ears i^reaching 
statedly, Mt. Moriah, when my home was in Jasper county. 
Miss., during the interval from 1^41 to 1848, I was very 
easily persuaded to accompany him on the following Satur- 
day to his ai^pointment. There I had the pleasure of meet- 
ing many old friends, who had been my parishioners four- 
teen years previously, and among them was my devoted 
friend, Mrs. Watson Evans, at whose house I had the great 
pleasure of making my home during much of the time of my 
w^ar i^ilgrimage, from 1862 to 1865. 

My first and most earnest desire, now that I felt myself 
safe among friends in the South, w^as to get some emploj-- 
ment in which I might be useful. It was suggested that it 
would be well to pay a visit to my friend and brother, Dr. J. 
E. Wilson, of Augusta, Ga., with whom I had been closely 
associated in the organization of the General Assembly in 



394 John N. Waddel, D. T>., LL. D. 

the previous 3^ear. I remained for a few days in Missis- 
sippi, "with my old friends, visiting and preaching among 
them, and then turned my way to Georgia. Passing through 
Atlanta, I found my son George there, in the hospital, after 
the battle of Murfreesboro, but convalescent. I was with 
him one day, and after furnishing him with some needed 
clothing, I pressed on to Augusta. Here, after conference 
with Dr. Wilson and the Committee of the Bible Society of 
the Confederate States, I was appointed agent of the Society 
for the West, which I gladly accepted, and returned to Mis- 
sissippi, made the necessary preparations, and began the 
work of the agency on the 7th February, 1863. In this 
work I continued for three months, presenting the cause ta 
the people of Columbus, Brandon, Meridian, Enterprise, 
Jackson, Grenada, and to the country churches of that re- 
gion, successfully, as the people of all these places were very- 
zealous in the interest of the Confederacy, on every account. 
As the General Assembly had adjourned at Montgomery, 
Ala., to meet in Columbia, S. C. on the 7th of May, and as I 
was stated clerk, I suspended the work of the agency to at- 
tend that meeting. On my way to Columbia, in passing 
through Augusta, I presented my report of the first quarter 
of my work, and settled my accounts with the committee. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Appointed Commissioner of Army Missions in the Mississippi Akmy. 
— Two Sad Events of the Year. — Arrival of My Children from 
La Grange. 

THE third annual meeting of the General Assembly oc- 
curred, according to appointment, in Columbia, S. C, 
on May 7, 1863, and there were in attendance during its ses- 
sions forty ministers, and twenty-four ruling elders. Only 
thirty-live of the forty-live Southern Presbyteries were rej^- 
resented at this meeting ; the Synod of Arkansas had but 
one of its four Presbyteries represented ; the Synod of Nash- 
ville only two ; the Synod of Texas none at all, as the enemy 
had jDossession of the river, and of the city of New Orleans. 
But it was quite an important meeting, as may be seen by 
reference to the Minutes of 1863. Among other measures 
adopted at this meeting was the inauguration of a system of 
chaplaincies, to be managed by the Executive Committee of 
Domestic Missions, to supply the religious w^ants of the 
army. On motion of Dr. B. M. Palmer, the Assembly re- 
solved to engage for one hour in a free conference upon that 
subject. Dr. Palmer had received a communication ad- 
dressed to the Assembly by Mr. Samuel Barnett, of Georgia, 
in which this subject was presented for consideration, and 
he had sent at the same time, by letter, the sum of five hun- 
dred dollars collected in Washington, Ga., for the purpose of 
assisting in the support of army chaplains who might be ap- 
pointed under the authority of the General Assembly. The 
result was, that the Standing Committee on Domestic Mis- 
sions, in their report, recommended that we 2:>roceed to es- 

395 



396 J. N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

tablish the office of commissioner to each of the grand armies 
of the Confederacy, whose duties are pointed out as follows: 
"(1,) To labor as chaplains; (2), to select, and secure other 
■chaplains; (3), to procure commissions for those chaplains; 
(4), to welcome and employ other ministers on temporary 
\isits to the army, and give them opportunities for usefulness ; 
(5), to circulate books and tracts, etc. ; (6), to organize this 
work, so that our church should have the opportunity of do- 
ing good in this interesting field of labor." 

Eev. B. T. Lacy was appointed Commissioner to the Army 
of Virginia, and Dr. Palmer was appointed "provisionally 
to the Army of Tennessee." He was appointed in this way 
because he stated that he must be "left to his own discre- 
tion with regard to the length of time, and he proposed to 
serve "on his own charges." It was also left to the Execu- 
tive Committee to appoint other commissioners to the other 
great armies of the Confederacy. 

Under this last provision, I was appointed Commissioner 
to the Army of Mississippi, then under the command of 
General Polk. AVhereupon I resigned the agency of the 
Bible Society, and entered at once upon the discharge of 
the duties of the new office of commissioner to the army. My 
time was spent in visiting brigades and preaching to the 
soldiers, every facility for this being allowed by the com- 
manding officers ; and visiting hospitals where cur wounded 
and sick men were confined ; paying the salaries of our chap- 
lains, and aiding in every way in the work of preaching and 
instruction of the army within my assigned field of labor. I 
can give only a brief statement of the work actually done by 
me during the j'ear while I held the office. I preached then 
not less than one hundred sermons, and to do this I had to 
travel from one brigade to another, many miles ajDart ; and 
from hospital to hospital, located in IMontgomer}^ and Me- 
ridian, and Selma and Marion and Jackson, and in these 
places, not once only, but repeatedly, and so, with some in- 



The General Assembly of 1863. 397 

terruptions upon other work assigned by the Assembly, I 
was not allowed much time to rest. 

The Assembly of 1863 acted also on an overture from 
East Hanover Presbytery, recommending- that the Assembly 
take measures to secure a union between the Old and New 
School branches of the Presbyterian Church. It was, there- 
fore, agreed that a commitee, consisting of Pev. B. L. Dab- 
ney, D. D., Rev. J. N. Waddel, D. B., Pev. William Brown, 
D. D., Rev. J. B. Ramsey, D. D., Rev. E. T. Baird, D. P., 
Col. J. T. L. Preston, and F. N. "Watkins, Esq., be appointed 
to confer with a similar committee, should any such be ap- 
pointed from the United Synod of the Presbyterian Church, 
touching the matter of a union between that body and the 
General Assembly. 

Accordingly, about the twenty-fifth of July, this commit- 
tee met a committee from the United Synod, in the city of 
Lynchburg, Va., and under the joint chairmanship of Dr. 
Dabney on our behalf, and the eminent Dr. J. C. Stiles on 
their part, we prayerfully and candidly discussed for some 
days all the doctrinal points which might be supposed to be 
at issue between the two bodies, and agreed to report favor- 
ably to the two separate bodies at their next annual meeting 
in 1864. 

My time was spent in these various ways most generally 
in Mississippi, but occasionally in adjoining States, as it was 
a part of my duty as commissioner to visit the churches, 
and lay before them the wants of the army as to religious 
instruction and preaching, and to raise money for the sala- 
ries of those chaplains who were sent to the army by our 
Executive Committee of Domestic Missions. I was much on 
the various railroads, passing through the territory occupied 
by Gen. Polk's division, and spent a part of my time in Mont- 
gomery, where my eldest brother. Prof. James P. Waddel, 
lived, and sometimes in Jackson, Mississippi, in both of 
w^hich cities were large hospitals. On one of my visits to 



398 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

•Jackson I met the intelligence of two deaths which occasioned 
deep distress to me. The one of these was that of a very 
dear and intimate friend of mine, Rev. John H. Miller, of 
Pontotoc, the pastor of the Presbyterian church in that place. 
I give this as an incident of very deep interest on two ac- 
counts • (1), The loss of a noble and gifted character, who 
was the centre of not only a large circle of admiring friends 
in the community of his residence, and of devoted church 
jnembers whom he served as their spiritual leader and de- 
voted friend, but the almost idolized husband and father 
of a large family, who regarded him with most tender 
affection, and profoundest reverence and esteem. The 
other consideration justifying a narration or record of his 
death is the fact that it furnishes an illustration of the 
fearful horrors of the brutal and unnatural war of 1861-'65. 
The death of Rev. Mr, Miller was on this wise : 

He was an ardent Southern patriot, and on the call for 
troops by the State authorities, he volunteered as a cavalry 
man, and was elected captain of a company, and served in 
Kentucky for a while. He very soon was promoted to a col- 
onelcy, but he soon also made the discovery that, on account 
of the uncontrollable wickedness of soldiers in camp, he was 
sadly out of place, and he resigned and returned home. He 
was on a ministerial visit to Ripley, to aid the pastor, Rev. 
Wm. A. Gray, in conducting a sacramental meeting. Ee 
had the appointment to preach on Sabbath morning, when 
the intelligence reached him, on Saturday evening, at the 
house of Judge Rogan where he was entertained, that Ripley' 
was occupied by a body of cavalry commanded by the notori- 
ous Hurst, who, though a citizen of Tennessee, had entered 
the Federal service, and had raised troops from among his 
neighbors for the scourging and ravaging of the country. 
Mr. Miller, of course, abandoned the appointment of the 
next day, and after remaining and spending the night with 
his friend in safety, the question of the best course for him 



Death of Eev. Mr. Miller. 399 

io pursue under the circumstances, was discussed. His host 
strenuously insisted on the propriety of his remaining- se- 
-creted on his premises until the raid under Hurst should be 
finished and the raiders should have departed. But Mr. 
Miller insisted on going on home at once, as he felt sure 
that he would get safely on his way. In pursuance of this 
determination he mounted liis horse and in a short time he 
met one of Hurst's lieutenants, with an attendant Federal 
soldier, having two Confederate soldiers as prisoners, and he 
was captured. As the}- were then on the way to Eipley, Mr. 
M. made the attempt to grasp the pistol from the holsters 
of the officer as they rode on abreast, whereupon he was 
immediately shot, and again, after falling fi-om his horse, 
was shot a second time, and the body was left lying in the 
public road, dead, after they had robbed him of his horse, 
his watch, and a sermon, for which last article they, doubt- 
less, had very little use ! 

Thus this most excellent man, and influential and useful 
minister, was ruthlessly murdered by a vagabond raider, 
who was only a vile traitor to his country, and the commu- 
nity deprived of a high-toned citizen, and a most virtuous 
and lovely family plunged into the deepest grief. The body 
lay exposed during half the day, mitil discovered by a friend, 
Mrs. B., living near, and then it was carefully taken and 
transported to Pontotoc, where it was placed in the care of 
the disconsolate family, and consigned by sorrowing friends 
to his last resting place. 

The other case, one of a more private nature, was the 
death of William C. Gray, the eldest son of Dr. Gray, of 
whom we have recorded on a previous 'page that he had been 
graduated in the Class of 1861, of La Grange College. Williej 
as he was called by us all, was a very remarkable 3'outh. 
Lovely and amiable in his disposition, attractive in person 
and gentle in manner, he was bright and promising intellec- 
tually, and, to crown all his other traits, he was a modest. 



400 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

earnest Christian. He was among the first to volunteer for 
the war, and I remember the morning when he and his 
classmate, Charles V. Thompson, were standing at the 
depot, awaiting the arrival of the train that was to convey 
them to camp, and where they were to enter the lists and 
encounter the perils and hardships of war. Prof. Meigs and 
I standing near, the remark was made by one of us, and 
affirmed by the other, "Is this not costly food for bullets?" 
And so it was. They were comrades in many an army expe- 
rience, but Willie never returned to his hoine and dear ones. 
His ending of earthly life and work was as follows : 

In the latter part of July, 1862, after the evacuation of 
Corinth by Beauregard, and the arrangement made by^ 
which General Bragg was to invade Kentucky, the army 
was marched in force into Kentucky, and, on the 30th of 
August, General Kirby Smith, with a division to which our 
boys belonged, met the enemy at Richmond,, Ky., and 
achieved a victory. After this fight, and Bragg's battle 
wdth a Federal force, at Perryville, under Buel, the Southern 
troops retreated through Cumberland Gap, carrying with 
them immense quantities of supplies of every description, 
but having gained no other advantages whatever. Our 
boys, AVillie Gray, George, my son, and their companions, 
West and Thompson, came safely out of the battle of Rich- 
mond, but on General Kirby Smith's continuance of his 
march towards Covington, Willie Gray was taken sick and 
left on the way for recovery, at Cj^nthiana, Ky., so that when 
the army of General Smith was on the retreat, he was unable 
to go with the rest, and the enemy following on the track of 
our army, found Willie and took him prisoner, and he was 
taken to Cairo, where he died and was buried. Of all this, 
his father was utterly ignorant until the winter of 1862, or 
spring of 1863. Dr. Gray, having heard in some way that 
the Federals had stopped in Cairo, thinking that i)robab]y 
Willie was there, took the train and went up to Columbus, 



Death of Willie Gray. 401 

!Ky., soon after I had made my escape from La Grange. But 
when he arrived there he learned that all possible chance to 
reach Cairo had been cut off by reason of a panic that pre- 
vailed in Caii'o, on account of a report that Forrest, with an 
immense cavalry force, was approaching. So he returned, 
and came down through Mississippi, and went on to Vicks- 
burg, having learned that an exchange Avas to be made there, 
and hoping to find Willie there. When he reached there, 
he found, indeed, that the exchange had been agreed upon, 
and that many of our boys were there on their way home, 
paroled ; but, alas ! his boy had been left in his grave, at 
Cairo. After the war, to end the story, Dr. Gray succeeded 
in recovering Willie's remains, and having them brought to 
Memphis and buried in his family lot, in Elmwood Ceme- 
tery. 

As I have said in a previous part of this chapter, I learned 
all this on the occasion of one of my visits to Jackson. It so 
happened that I reached Jackson just in the evening of the 
day on which Dr. Gray had left Jackson, to retiu^n home to 
La Grange. He learned in Jackson that I was expected in 
that place, and he left letters explanatory of all his movements 
subsequent to the time of my departure from La Grange. 
Among other letters, I found one from my daughter, Mary 
West, informing me that she and her sister Bessie, and her 
brother Gray, had come out of the lines of the enemy, and 
were at Pontotoc at that time. My joy may be imagined 
more truly than can be expressed by me in words. I has- 
tened back to my home at Mrs. Evans', packed up and took 
the train for Meridian, thence to Okolona, and then, by hir- 
ing a mule, I rode on to Pontotoc, and found my children 
safely resting with the bereaved family of my murdered 
friend and brother. Miller. 

Let me state a fact for my abohtion friends to explain. 
With my children when they came, one of my old servants, 
without any expression of such a wish on their part, came 
26 



402 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

out with them, determined to share their lot whatever it 
might be, leaving her own children behind. To dismiss this 
23oint, she remained with them all the rest of her days, 
taking care of them until she closed her faithful life of ser- 
vice, and was nursed kindly and tenderly in her last illness, 
and buried decently, with the assistance of friends, at their 
home in Mississippi, and thero she rests in i:>eace until the 
morning of the resurrection. She died in faith. She would 
hardly have left her own children had she not loved these 
children that she had "raised;" and she would hardly have 
loved them if she had been so cruelly and unjustly treated 
as the falsely so-called friends of the colored people delight 
to represent. 



CHAPTER XXXYIIL 

Moke Perils and Escapes. — Residence at Meridian and at Mont- 
gomery. — Wanderings. — Change of Work. — In Danger of Cap- 
ture. 

DUKING- this year, 1863, several of the more disastrous 
and disheartening misfortunes came upon the Confed- 
erate government. Among them was the fall of Vicksbui'g, 
which was surrendered on tho morning of the 4th of 
July by a capitulation, the parties to which were General 
Pemberton, of the Confederate army, and General Grant, 
in command of the Union forces. After this event there 
was a general expectation that the armies under Grant and 
Sherman would march across Mississippi, eastward from 
Vicksburg, and such an expedition did advance as far as 
Jackson, and rumors reached Meridian that the forces were 
on the march, having crossed Pearl River. As might be 
supposed, great panic seized the people about Meridian, and 
nearly all were flying from their homes and temporary places 
of refuge. As my children were at the time making their 
homo near Meridian, with my friend, Eev. Mr. Emerson, I also 
removed them, as speedily as possible, to Montgomery, Ala., 
and placed them there in my brother's family. In this p]ace 
they had a comfortable home for nine months, while I was 
almost entirely devoted to the work of visiting the various 
points of the western army and the many hospitals in Ala- 
bama and Mississippi, making my headquarters at Mont- 
gomery. I spent the 3'ear 1863 in hard work among the 
soldiers and chaplains, in this way having little time to rest, 
and often sufifering from loss of sleep, and being obliged to 

403 



404 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

avail myself of modes of transportation of the most uncom- 
fortable and disagreeable sort. I was received most cordi- 
ally always by the ofHcers and private soldiers, and the 
church chaplaincy with which I was charged as commis- 
sioner and superintendent, during 1863-4, was, I have no 
doubt, attended wiih great benefit to the army, as I know 
that many of our most godly and zealous ministers devoted 
themselves to the work of preaching to the soldiers in camp 
and in visiting the hospitals and ministering to the spiritual 
wants of the sick and wounded, and soothing and cheering 
the last hours of many a brave and gallant soldier. 

It was previous to the fall of Vicksburg that I determined 
to jDay a visit to our boys, J. T>. West, C. V, Thompson, and 
my son George, in camp at Shelby ville, Tenn. I left Mont- 
gomery on June 12th, and reached Chattanooga on Satur- 
day evening, and spent the night there. Here I met with 
some of my La Grange friends in the hospital, who gave me 
a considerable budget of news in regard to the state of mat- 
ters in our old home. On awaking, I passed through a 
mental conflict on the subject of ni}' duty as regards prose- 
cuting my onward travel on the Sabbath. I arrayed the 
arguments /^ro and con about as follows . 

1. The evils of going forward on the one side, and those 
of resting on the other: 1st, If I remain I shall incur addi- 
tional expense. 2. Be lonely : 1st, If I travel I shall fall in 
with uncongenial company ; 2nd, Shall be apprehensive of 
peril for travelling. 3. My conscience will condemn me. 
What are the reasons for travelling *? 1. I shall be with the 
boys; 2. May attend divine service in camp, perchance even 
have the privilege of listening to Dr. Palmer. Even with 
these thoughts passing through my mind I saw that the de- 
cision was that I should remain in Chattanooga. But when 
I considered, 1st, that by remaining I should enjoy the 
privilege of reading my Bible ; 2nd, could attend divine ser- 
vice in some of the churches ; 3rd, the travel was not a work 



Preaching in Camp, 405 

of necessity or of mercy; 4tli, I should have a clear con- 
science ; 5tli, it was certainly right to remain ; I hesitated 
no longer as to this question, and sx^ent the Sabbath read- 
ing my Bible, attending preaching both morning and even- 
ing, by a young brother then a stranger to me, but since 
then well known as Kev. H. B. Boude, V>. D., pastor of sev- 
eral churches in various parts of the Southern Presbyterian 
Church, and President of Austin College, Sherman, Texas. 
At the time to which I refer he was a chaplain in the Con- 
federate army. His text of the morning was Matt. xvi. 26. 
In the evening heard Rev. Mr. Boude again, text not now 
remembered. 

I reached Shelby ville about G o'clock p. m., and by the 
kindness of a friend, who was Post-commandant, I obtained 
the use of a horse, and rode out to the camp, about three 
miles, and found the boys well, and glad to see me. I re- 
mained in camp and in the town about a w^eek, during 
which time I preached to the soldiers of Vaughan's and 
Walthall's commands four times, and had the pleasure of 
meeting Dr. Palmer and of hearing him preach to a vast 
assembly in the open air ; and as he stood upon a rocky 
mound, and the audience stood, and sat, and lay upon the 
slope before him, the scene was unspeakably solemn, and 
the sermon equally solemn and impressive. Among the va- 
rious regiments I met many of my old pu^oils, former stu- 
dents of the l^niversity and of La Grange College, some of 
whom survived the war, and others passed away during its 
continuance, either in battle or in the hospital. 

In leaving the camj). Dr. Palmer and I called on General 
Bragg at his headquarters, and were received courteously. 
I obtained from the General a passport, and, leaving Shel- 
byville on Saturday, 20th June, arrived at AVartrace, the 
point of junction of the branch road from Shelby ville with 
the main road to Chattanooga ; found myself checked by 
orders from headquarters that all citizens should leave the 



406 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. T>. 

train, as a brigade of soldiers had been unexpectedly ordered 
to Chattanooga, and thence to East Tennessee, to reinforce 
General Buckner, to meet a raid of the enemy on Knoxville. 
I returned by next train to camp, and after spending Sab- 
bath there, left again on Tuesday, and arrived, ^Yithout 
further interruption, at Montgomery. 

With the exception of my trip to Lj-nchburg, Va., to 
meet the Joint Committee of the Southern Presbyterian 
Church and the United Synod, to which I have referred, I 
spent my time as usual in travelling from post to post, from 
hospital to hospital, in prosecution of my duties as commis- 
sioner. The most important event of the war, the fall of 
Vicksburg, occurred on July 4th. This rendered it neces- 
sary to remove my children to a more secure place of refuge, 
inasmuch as there were immediately in circulation flying 
rumors of the approach of the Federal troops toward Me- 
ridian. There were immense crowds of refugees passing 
through the place, and the trains on the railroads were filled 
to their utmost capacity, so that I found great difficulty in 
securing transportation for m}' family and their baggage. 
I was successful, however, in getting to Montgomery via 
Mobile, and placing them in care of my brother, James P. 
Waddel, where they were in perfect safety and comfort. I 
returned to Mississippi very soon, as the rumors of an east- 
ern advance of General Grant's army proved to be false. A 
very large number of the Vicksburg soldiers having been re- 
leased on parole, and among them all their officers in com- 
mand, an encampment was formed at Enterprise, on the 
Mobile and Ohio railroad, and there I spent a great deal 
of my time, and preached much in the camp and in the 
Presbyterian church, and thus I worked on through the 
winter of 1863-'64. 

I must not omit to mention that Eev. Dr. E. II. Ruther- 
ford, having been pastor of the Presbyterian church in 
Vicksburg previous to the beginning of the siege, remained 



A Marriage Ceremony. 407 

in the city during the entire time of its investment by 
Grant, suffering all the hardships to which the besieged army 
and the citizens had been subjected, and came out with the 
soldiers who were on parole. He soon became actively en- 
gaged as a missionary chaplain to the troops in camp at 
Enterprise, at the same time supplying the Presbyterian, 
church at that place. 

We were associated in many such works in the camps and 
hospitals. There were many other chaplains with whom it 
was my privilege to associate during those times of gloom 
and trial. Among them I call to mind Rev. Dr. Thomas K. 
Markham, Eev. Dr. J. H. Bryson, and the brethren, Rev. 
Dr. Richmond Mclnuis, and Rev. Dr. H. M. Smith, Rev. D. 
D. Sanderson, and A. P. Silliraan, Rev. S. J. Bingham, and 
Rev. Dr. W. T. Hall, with many others of our most devoted 
and prominent ministers, all of whom were faithful and 
zealous in supplying the religious wants of the army. 

The year 1864 began darkly and gloomily, both within me 
and in the prospects of the country. The first service I was 
called to perform was to officiate at the marriage of Miss 
Kate Calhoun to a Lieut. George Jones, of our army. The 
lady w as the daughter of James L. Calhoun, (a nephew of 
the great J. C. Calhoun,) who had been a pupil of mine in 
the first school I ever taught, w^hen I was in my nineteenth 
year, but who was not much younger than I. He now held 
some office under the Confederacy, having his place of busi- 
ness in Montgomery. The ceremony was solemnized at the 
town of Tuskeegee, in the presence of a fine assemblage of 
friends and relatives of the bride, who was a most charming 
lady. 

The next incident that occurred in my private history was 
that my youngest boy, now just having passed his seven- 
teenth birthday, entered the army of the Confederacy in 
January, and thus I had furnished to the cause of my native 
South, in her struggle for independence, my two sons and 



408 JoHxN N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

an almost innumerable host of young friends and former 
pupils, among whom was the husband of my eldest daughter, 
Hev. James T>. West, and the affianced of my younger 
daughter, C. V. Thompson. 

The months rolled slowly on through the winter and 
spring, with one additional incident in my narrative which I 
propose to record, which, while it was in the line of my 
work, was exceedingly perilous, and unpleasant at times, un- 
til its final and fortunate denouement. About February 1st 
I left Meridian with a view of paying a visit to North Mis- 
sissippi, to raise mone}^ for arm}^ missions, and visit Forrest's 
division of cavalry, then in camj) at Oxford. I arrived at 
Oxford on the 3rd of February, and made my home with my 
long-tried and devoted friends, Mr. Rascoe and family, visit- 
ing many friends beside, all of whom seemed glad to sec me. 
3 preached in Oxford to a crowd, and raised $318.75 for the 
army mission. Also preached iil College Church, and raised 
for army missions ^"^181, for the Bible cause $200, and for 
Foreign Missions $G0— total at both jDlaces, $759,75. I re- 
mained in and about Oxford until February 8th. During 
this interval the town was filled with exciting rumors of the 
Yankees having caj^tured Jackson and Canton and going on 
eastward, our troops falling back. It was also reported that 
a strong column of Federal cavalry was moving out of Mem- 
phis. We were told also that the forces under Forrest were 
to evacuate Oxford, and all the army stores were to be moved, 
and every one was to abandon Oxford who could get awa}^ 
Of course, under these circumstances of peril and confusion, 
nothing could be accomplished by stopping longer there ; 
accordingly, I obtained from a friend a mule, and rode out 
to the neighborhood of Hopewell Church, and spent the 
night with Brother Patton, pastor, preached the next day 
(Tuesday, 9th), and raised $53 for army missions and $10 
additional fiom Brother Patton. On Thursday, 11th, I rode 
over to Lebanon Church, driven in a buggy by Daniel Mc- 



A Federal Invasion. 409 

FarlancI, Jr., then a boy of twelve or fourteen years, now 
Bev. Dr. McFarland, of Staunton, Va. I preached at Le- 
banon Church on the 12th of February, and raised $106 for 
the mission. 

I spent the night there, and we were still assailed with 
rumors of a confused and unsatisfactory nature. On the 
loth, by another relay on a borrowed horse, and accom- 
j)anied by a young friend, I rode over to Pontotoc and spent 
the night (Saturday) with my afflicted friends, the Miller 
family, of my murdered friend and brother, Eev. J. H. Mil- 
ler, having an aj)pointment to preach the next day at 11 
o'clock. Early the next morning (Sabbath), just after dress- 
ing and coming from my room, I was met by a Confederate 
artilleryman in the hall, who told me that, having learned 
tlitit I was at Mrs. Miller's, and supposing that I was not 
willing to be captured, he had come to warn me to leave 
Pontotoc as quickly as possible, as he had received reliable 
information that at New Albany, a small town about nine- 
teen miles above Pontotoc, 1'2,000 cavalry troops, under a 
commander who was best known as "Whiskey Smith," had 
encamped the night before, and would probably reach Pon- 
totoc about 10 o'clock A. M. Of course, I expressed my 
thanks to my unknown friend for his kindness in giving me 
this timely warning, and my mind was quickly made up to 
letive at once. But I had no horse, nor had I made any 
preparation to obtain one. Making known my decision to 
the family that I would leave at the earliest moment, and at 
the same time the fact of my being without a horse or con- 
veyance of any kind whereby to make my escape, the whole 
difficulty was removed by the quick perception and generous 
proposal of Miss Mary Miller, the daughter of my friend, 
whose brutal murder has been recorded in a preceding 
chapter. To set the matter in its just light, it is worthy of 
the reader's time and attention to understand the circum- 
stances connected with Miss Miller's conduct on this occa- 



410 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

pion. Her eldest brother, Edward G, Miller, inheriting the 
ardent patriotism of his father, and iired with the martial 
spirit and unflinching courage which characterized his fel- 
lows-students of La Grange College, had volunteered in 1861, 
and joined a company of cavalry ; and on occasion of an en- 
gagement which occurred between his company and a body 
of Federals near Moscow, ten miles west of La Grange, on 
the Memphis and Charleston railroad, young Miller was 
killed, and his horse and all his accoutrements were, of 
course, taken possession of by the enemy, as this engage- 
ment was disastrous to our forces. The sad intelligence of 
the death of this beloved young soldier having reached the 
family. Miss Mary heroically resolved to go to the camp of 
the enemy at Moscow and recover her brother's remains. 
She put her resolve into execution as soon as possible, went 
to the battle-field, and lecovered from the commander the 
remains of her brother, and, by her eloquent appeals, also 
obtained his horse, saddle, and bridle, and succeeded in 
having all brought homo in safety. The body lies buried 
by the side of the remains of his father in the cemetery at 
Pontotoc. The horse, a sacred and cherished memorial of 
the beloved brother, was taken care of, and it was on this 
occasion offered to me, in my dire extremity, as the means 
of my escape from the threatened capture. I shall never 
lose the sense of profound gratitude to Mr-s Ma'ry, nor my 
admiration for her heroic character. 

I w^as thus again, in the kind, protecting providence of 
God, enabled to escape what I conceived to be imminent 
peril, and I left Pontotoc, immediately after an early break- 
fast, for Okoloua, the nearest station on the Mobile and 
Ohio railroad, at which place I proposed to take the train 
for Meridian. Here, however, I experienced the truth of 
the proverb, "Man proposes, but God disposes"; for as I 
approached Okolona I met a solitary horseman, just from, 
the place-, and from him I learned that the train I had pro- 



Preparing for Flight. 411 

posed to take had left Okolona, and that no other train was 
to be run on the road under present arrangements. He 
gave as the reason for this state of matters that the tele- 
graph operator at Meridian had just sent his last dispatch 
over the wires to Okolona previous to his departure, to the 
effect tbat the advance of Sherman's army was just entering 
Meridian as he left. 

Again I found myself "at my wdts end," and surely knew 
not " what next ? " or whither to direct my steps. I rode on 
to the station, nevertheless, and, calling at the residence of 
an elder of our church, Mr. Shepherd, who received me 
kindly, I mad 3 known to him my pressing strait and my in- 
formation in regard to the prospective invasion of the coun- 
try by Smith's cavalry force, expressing my belief that the 
enemy would reach Okolona that day. He directed me to 
the house of another elder, Mr. "Wiley Dearing, an old 
friend of mine, who lived four miles in the country, as the 
safest place of refuge. In the meantime he informed me 
that a lady at his house was just then expecting to leave fur 
Georgia or South Carolina in a small vehicle or carriage, 
and that she wished, if possible, to leave next day, if not 
prevented, and she would be glad of my company and pro- 
tection. He planned for me to go out at once to Mr. Dear- 
ing's and sj)end the night, and that he (Mr. Shepherd) 
would keep me informed as to the arrival or non-arrival of 
the Federal cavalry. If they should fail to come, he would 
send a horse for me on the next day, and I could then leave 
in safety. I carried out this plan ; rode out and spent the 
night very pleasantly and very comfortabty with my friend, 
Mr. Dearing, and next day, after leaving Miss Mary Miller's 
horse, etc., with him, with a letter informing her where the 
horse would be found, I rode back to Okolona. I foimd 
that the expected raid had not reached there, and that the 
arrangement which I had considered decided, that I should 
leave with the lady aforesaid, had failed, as she had aban- 



412 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

doned the idea of leaving. So, once more, I was disap- 
pointed as to a way of escape, and the troops I so much 
dreaded were constantly expected. But the good providence 
of God was still over and round about me for my protection. 
I found at Okolona that a Confederate quartermaster's 
train, which had made O!volona headquarters all along, was 
preparing to leave and escape the enem}^, and were to go 
east to Aberdeen that night. On calling on the officer in 
charge, I found, to my great gratification, that one of the 
men in the train was Captain Street, who had married a 
lady friend of my daughter, and making known to hi:_i my 
condition, he at once most kindly offered me a fine horse, 
saddle, and bridle, which I could use as far as Aberdeen. 
IMailiug my letter to Miss Miller (informing her about her 
horse), I left about ten o'clock p. m., in company with my 
friend and his wife (Avho travelled in his buggy), with quite a 
cavalcade. We did not pause until about one o'clock a. m., 
having accomplished about ten miles. We remained there 
in perfect safety until next morning after breakfast, when 
we renewed our journey uninterruptedly to Aberdeen, which 
we reached about eleven o'clock a. m. Hero w^e parted, my 
friend. Captain Street, having orders to proceed no farther 
on my route, and I gave up his horse, with earnest thanks 
for his great kindness. 

I now began to realize that we were in no great danger of 
the pursuit I had so much dreaded, but, at the same time, 
there was the anxiety still resting upon my mind as to my 
future return to Montgomery, and as to the mode of prose- 
cuting my route eastward. 

At Aberdeen I was fortunate in meeting quite a number 
of old friends who had patronized the University at Oxford, 
T>r, Sykes, Mr. Kandall, Mr. Evans, and others, besides also 
Ira G. Holloway and Lucien Sykes, former students at Ox- 
ford, and I am sure I never was more cordially received 
at any place in all my life. I found, however, at first. 



A Y/ay of Escape. 413 

very great difficulty in securing a plan of prosecuting my 
onward travel. After seeing my friends, and trying ear- 
nestly to get on in some way or other, one expedient after 
another having failed, I met with a gentleman, Mr. Walton, 
a citizen of Aberdeen, who had a pair of line horses and a 
carriage which he was very anxious to save from the " Yan- 
kees." His plan was to send them to his son-in-law, a Dr. 
Green, who was a surgeon in the Confederate army. He 
had learned that Dr. Green, with all the Meridian medical 
staff, had, on the approach of Sherman's forces, made their 
escape, and taken up their headquarters at Marion, Ala. 
Still there remained another obstacle to the full and entire 
carr^dng out of the plan, and that was to have with me some 
companion or companions to aid me in the enterprise of 
driving the horses and taking care of them, for about one 
hundred miles across the country, and delivering everything 
safely to Dr. Green. Let me not omit to record another in- 
stance of the continual care and kindness of Divine Provi- 
dence manifested toward me in all these perilous times. 
There were then in Aberdeen two officers of Gen. Joseph E. 
Johnson's army, on furlough, very anxious to get away be- 
fore the enemy should reach there (for it was confidently 
expected that the forces of Smith would be in Aberdeen 
sooner or later), and when we met and compared notes we 
very quickly and successfully arranged to take charge of 
the entire establishment and deliver it to Dr. Green in Mar- 
ion, Ala., this point being on the direct route which they 
must travel back to their command. These gentlemen were 
a Ma^'or Pegram, of Tippah county. Miss., and a Mr. Peck, 
of Aberdeen. A still more favorable circumstance for us 
was that the latter gentleman had a servant who would re- 
turn with him to the army. So we had nothing to do but 
to make ourselves ready to go on our way rejoicing, in the 
most comfortable way possible, Avith a fine family caiTiage, 
a pair of fine horses, and a driver. Having stored away 



414 John N. AVaddel, D. D., LL. D. 

our small amount of baggage in tlie veliicle, we left 
Aberdeen on Wednesday about sunset, and drove on over 
bad, miry roads, and spent the nigbt very comfortably at a 
farm-house distant some six miles. How thankful was I 
that we were now evidently safe from pursuit, and that 
the way was now clear for an uninterrupted retreat from 
the dreaded foe ! Our journey was successfull}^ prosecuted 
through Pickens county, Ala., via Columbus, Miss , having 
a brief interview in the street of that city with my friend 
and brother, Rev. J. A. Lyon, D. D., who agreed with me 
that it was wise in us to place as great a distance as possi- 
ble between the enemy and our fine establishment I We 
passed through Clinton, Eutaw, and Greensboro to MaTion. 
As I passed the cemetery in Eutaw I recalled the fact that, 
just within a few hundred yards, la}^ buried the ashes of my 
first-born little boy, which we had laid to rest a quarter 
century previously, and nature even then claimed for his 
memory from my troubled heart the tribute due. We 
reached Marion on Saturday afternoon in perfect safety, and 
gladly delivered over to Dr. Green the equipage with which 
we had been entrusted by his father-in-law, Mr. Walton, of 
Aberdeen. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Finale of the Shekman-Smith Baid. — Retukn to Mississippi with 
MY Children. — MARKiAf^E of my Youngest Daughter. — Fourth 
Meeting op the General Assembly. — Change of Location in 
Army Work. 

I MET in Marion all the medical men who were in Meri- 
dian when I left there on my expedition of visiting the 
noi-thern part of Mississippi, the account of "which I have 
given in extenso in the preceding chapter. Dr. Isom, and 
Dr. John Smith, and Dr. Branham were of Oxford i)revious 
to the war ; and besides them, I met also Dr. Frazier, an 
old friend, of Tupelo, Miss. I was greatly gratified also to 
meet again Eev. Dr. Raymond, pastor of the Presl^yterian 
Church in Marion. I took up my quarters in the same 
building with the medical men, and preached twdce on Sab- 
bath, and collected $210 for army missions. I only re- 
mained in Marion imtil Monday morning, 22nd; when on 
my way to Montgomery, passing through Marion Junction 
Station, saw our troops in considerable numbers passing on 
to reinforce General Polk at Demopohs, who, with his army, 
was awaiting the advance of Sherman from Meridian. From 
them I learned that General Cheatham's Division was on 
the way to join General Polk, and accordingly I found this 
to be so on my arrival at Selma, for all of my boys were 
there awaiting orders to go b}^ next train on to Demopolis. 
It was soon ascertained, however, that this expedition was 
needless, as General Sherman had evacuated Meridian, 
after burning the little village, and had marched back to 
Vicksburg. So far as I was able to learn the facts of these 
movements on the part of the enemy, they were about as 

415 



416 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

follows: It was the design of General Sherman to march 
his forces from Vicksbiirg eastward across the State, and 
that he, with these troops, would eifect a junction at Meri- 
dian with a large body of cavalry from Memphis, under 
Smith, ard then both bodies of troops united should con 
tinue their march across to Montgomery, and take possession 
of Alabama and Georgia. The entire plan was defeated by 
the cavalry under General Forrest, who met Smith in the 
prairies in the northeastern part of Mississippi, and drove 
him back, after a disastrous battle, with terrible loss. This 
being ascertained by Sherman, he left without further at- 
tempts at the grand invasion, and the troojos which he had 
led in such formidable array were led back again by him, 
with the same experience of a certain king of France in the 
old couplet, of whom it is related that he — 

"Witli twice teu thousaud men, 
Marclied up the hill, and then marched back again. " 

As there was no further demand in that direction for re- 
inforcements for General Polk's troops. General Cheatham's 
division was ordered to return to Georgia. Our boys were 
passing back through Montgomery, and we had pleasant 
visits from them until they were ordered on their way. They 
left in high spirits and good health, and we cheered them 
on to the front, and followed them with our fervent prayers, 
unconscious of the solemn trials through which we and they 
were destined to pass before we should be allowed to meet 
again. 

My children had spent about nine months in Montgomery 
with my brother's family, but although I knew they were 
not only cordially welcome, but gladly entertained there, 
with tlieir uncle, aunt and cousins, yet I felt that it would 
suit better on all hands that they should return to Missis- 
sippi, as the enemy had, at this time, ceased to be at all 
troublesome. I therefore made very comfortable arrange- 



Eeminiscences of War Times. 417 

ments to have them make their home with Judge West, the 
father-in-law of my eldest daughter, her husband being 
in the army. This, I may say, was assuredly among the 
most secluded and inaccessible retreats, and consequently 
one of the safest places that could have been selected in the 
State, as a home for a family, where one might reasonably 
expect to be secure from raids, and at the same time afford- 
ing all the comforts and social enjoyments of a most excel- 
lent Christian famih^ Judge West was a very prominent 
elder of our church, and universally esteemed for his excel- 
lent character and devoted piety, and was full of kindness. 
Here my daughters w^ere welcomed by the judge himself, 
as well as by the ladies of the family, and in that retired 
spot they remained quietly until they were invited by Rev. 
J. H. Alexander, of Kosciusko, a neighboring town, to take 
part with him in a female academy located there, of 
which he was principal. During the latter part of their 
abode at Judge AYest's hospitable home, on the 25th of Jan- 
uar}^ 18G5, Charles V. Thompson, of whom I have written 
frequently in the preceding part of this memoir, came on a 
visit to my youngest daughter, on furlough from the army, 
and they w^ere married after their long engagement. The 
invitation of the Rev. Mr. Alexander was accepted not long 
after this event, and they remained in the Academy as 
teachers, boarding with him, until the close of the war. 
There I for- the present leave them, that I may go back to 
matters of public interest w^hich occurred in the interim. 

As the time approached for the fourth annual meeting of 
the General Assembly, commissioners began to make their 
appearance from various Presbyteries in the West, on their 
way to Charlotte, N. C. There was no commissioner from 
Arkansas, and Rev. R. F. Bunting was the sole representa- 
tive of Texas, and this because he was already on the. east 
side of the Mississippi, serving as chaplain in a Texas regi- 
ment. There were no commissioners at all from Nashville 



418 JoHi^ N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

Synod, as Teunessse, East and Middle, were overrun by the 
Federals. Still there were three from the Synod of Mem- 
phis, notwithstanding that West Tennessee and North Mis- 
sissipiDi were in the hands and under the control of the 
enemy. We had a membershij) of sixty-five at Charlotte. 
We left Montgomery on the 29th of April, and spent the 
Sabbath in Augusta, Ga. 

I must not omit to make mention of a signal escape from 
a sudden and violent death which I experienced, through 
the mercy of God, just as I left Montgomery. I was con- 
veyed in a buggy, driven by a rash driver, to the depot, and 
on apj)roaching the railroad, an unobserved freight train 
came down just in front of our crossing. At this the horse 
took fright, whirled suddenly, and would have dashed 
across and carried us all over a precij)ice, but by a kind pro- 
iecting Providence he fell, broke a shaft and a wheel of the 
buggy, and I stepped out upon the ground in safety. Trul}^ 
thankful for this preservation, I took my seat on the train, 
and, in company with other commissioners, we passed suc- 
cessfully through Columbus, Macon, and Augusta, reaching 
the latter place on Saturda^^ where we sj)ent Sabbath. AVe 
arrived in Charlotte, N. C, on Monday, 2nd of May, and as 
there still was an interval of two days before the meeting of 
the Assembly, I availed myself of the opportunity to visit 
Davidson College, distant about twenty miles. There I 
spent a pleasant time, in company with Dr. Kirkpatrick, the 
President of the College, and my former colleague and 
friend, Prof. J. R. Blake, the exercises of the College being 
stiU in operation ; and although laboring under the terrible 
pressure of these fearful war times, it is a wonderful his- 
toric fact to her credit, that "Davidson College was one of the 
few colleges in the Confederacy not closed during the war."i 

^ Since writing this sentence, I learn that the University of Alabama 
•was kept in operation during the war, and probably the Military Insti- 
tutions. 



Meeting of the General Assembly. 419 

At this meeting of the Assembly, on Thursday, 5th of May, 
Rev^Di\,jQkLLS^ Vils o n w asnefeT;ted-Mod^i:iator. The most 
imj)ortant measure adopted at this meeting was the union 
of the Southern Presbyterian Church with the United 
Synod of the Presbyterian Church. The report of the joint 
committee of these two bodies was read by the chairman of 
our committee, Rev. Dr. R. L. Dabney. There was a con- 
siderable discussion of the report pro and co/i, but with 
eight dissentients, some more and some less thoroughly op- 
posed, it was 23assed and ratified. 

I spent my time during the sessions of the Assembly at 
the house of a Captain White, of the Southern army, who 
was absent with his command ; but we were hospitably en- 
tertained by Mrs. AVhite, a noble-hearted Christian lady, 
who was sister-in-law of my classmate and friend, E. J. 
Erwin, in the University of Georgia, in 1828-'29. It was 
also a great joy to me that he was present, though not a 
commissioner to the Assembly, as we had an opportunity of 
personal intercourse during several days, which was our last 
meeting, as he did not long survive our separation. We 
found ourselves greatly changed. We were not only thirty- 
five years older than when we parted in Athens, Ga., in 
1829, but, as we trusted, we had both experienced a still 
greater change in our spiritual life, having passed from the 
condition of careless young men to that of Christians, he to 
serve God as a ruling elder in the church, and I as a min- 
ister of the blessed gospel. 

On my return west after the adjournment of the Assem- 
bly, as I passed through Columbia, S. C, I was informed by 
Dr. J. L. Wilson, Secretary of Domestic Missions, that I had 
been appointed commissioner to the Department of the 
Army, under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston. 
I stoj^ped, therefore, at Atlanta as I passed, and ascertained 
that our army was falling back before Sherman ; that the 
two armies were above Marietta, and all the sick and 



420 John :N. Waddel, D. B., LL. D. 

wcamded of our army were every day arriving at that point. 
I went then to Marietta, and, stopping with Dr. Setze, a 
friend, whose wife was my niece, I spent a night there, and 
on the morning of the next day I found, on a freight train, 
my son-in-law, James D. West, and my son, George, on sick 
furlough, going to the hospital at Newnan. Charles Thomp- 
son, who had been wounded, had also been sent back to 
Newnan, where he had friends, and was taken care of there. 
I remained a day with the boys, and after a hurried visit to 
Montgomery, and arranging business concerns there con- 
nected with my change of location, I returned to Newnan, 
and I learned that my youngest boy (Gray) also had been 
sent back, worn down and sick, but could not learn to what 
place he had been sent. After vain efforts to find him, I 
visited ihe hospital at La Grange, Ga., and there I found 
him, well cared for by some of my friends, among them Dr. 
Evans, surgeon in charge, one of my Aberdeen acquaint- 
ances. A brother Presb^'terian minister, Eev. T. F. Mont- 
gomery, pastor at La Grange, after that removed my boy to 
his own house ; and after I had preached at the hospital, on 
the 30th of June, I left Gray in good hands, and when he 
became convalescent, he went back to the army. I returned 
to Newnan, aiid found that James West had gone back to 
the front, but that George was still there. Eev. Dr. St.icey, 
pastor of the church at Newnan, was conducting a meeting 
of some interest, and many soldiers there in the hospital 
WTTe attending, and some of them professed conversion, 
among whom was my son George, who joined the church at 
that time and place. I preached a week for Brother Stacey 
iu Newnan, and once at a country church of his twelve 
miles west of Newnan. I was kindly entertained during my 
stay with Dr. Calhoun, and after a visit of a week at Mar- 
ietta, where I waited on the sick and wounded, I had occa- 
sion to leave there for a few days. On my re-turn to Marietta 
I found everything in great confusion. Dr. Setze's family 



Army Movements. 421 

Lad left, with whom I had spent my time ; his lot had been 
converted into a cavalry-horse lot, the house abandoned, and 
in the town the a23i3earance was as if every one who could 
leave had left and were leaving. This was about July 1st. 
I remained until the night of the 3rd, when, learning that 
the place was to be evacuated, I went to headquarters and 
secured the appointment of agent to go with some govern- 
ment property to Atlanta that afternoon. I took my seat 
by the open door of a freight car loaded with stores, and as 
the train did not leave as early as was expected, I was a si- 
lent watcher for many hours of the silent but steady march 
of our army as they made their way to the point of safety 
beyond the Chattahoochee river, within seven miles of At- 
lanta. During this time the enemy kept up a sullen shell- 
ing of the now empty town and firing their cannon upon the 
unoccupied works. All reached the place of their encamp- 
ment in safety, and I arrived in Atlanta about midnight of 
the 3rd. We learned that Sherman's army entered and 
took possession of Marietta on the morning of the 4th. 
General Johnson halted his army on the south bank of the 
river, and for the time the enemy moved slowly and cau- 
tiously down South. 



CHAPTEE XL. 

Sojourn in Atlanta and in Camp. — General Johnson Kelieved. — 
Evacuation or Atlanta. — Stay in Eufaula. — Death of my Son 

AT JONESBORO, — ArMY MOVEMENT ToWARD NaSHVILLE. 

I REMAINED in Atlanta about one month watching for 
opportunities to do something for the boys. It was just 
before the evacuation of Marietta by our trooj)S that James 
"West and a number of others, being out on a kind of skirmish 
west of Marietta, in the neighborhood of Kenesaw Mountain, 
were captured and sent to Johnson's Island as prisoners, 
and this put an end to their active service. They were not 
released until the close of the war. I found it almost im- 
possible to do any thing in the way of my chaplaincy and 
commissioner work in Johnson's army, for the simple reason 
that they were not stationary long enough at a time for 
much visitation. I was making my headquarters in Atlanta, 
and took up my board at a house where one of my former 
La Grange pupils was boarding. He had been disabled in 
the army, and was ordered to serve on a military court that 
was sitting at that time in Atlanta. I shared his bed-room 
and his bed with him. His name was Wm. M. Ingram, and 
he was a universal favorite in college, and, surviving the 
war, became a Presbyterian minister, very acceptable and 
extensively useful, giving bright promise of a future in the 
ministry, when he was brought to a premature end of his 
term of service by a wasting insidious disease. With him 
I was very much blessed, as a friend and a congenial com- 
panion. I was able to go out to the camp every day for a 
short time, and spent one Sabbath at the headquarters of 
General Eeatherston with the Rev. Dr. Thomas R. Mark- 

422 



Kemoval of General eToHNSTON 423 

ham, and preached three times, once at Canty 's Brigade and 
twice at Featherston's. While there engaged in preaching, 
some exciting news was brought into camp about the move- 
ments of the enemy. I spent the night there, however, and 
returned to Atlanta next morning. The first intelligence, 
which we received on getting back was that orders had beerr 
received from Richmond relieving General Johnston, and 
putting General Hood at the head of the department. I 
have rarely ever witnessed such a distressing and dishearten- 
ing influence produced by any piece of news as that which 
followed the removal of General Johnston, manifested in the 
saddened and gloomy aj)pearance of the officers and private 
soldiers. At that time the General was assuredly the ob- 
ject of the admiration, confidence and love of the men of that 
army. The dissatisfaction was universal among the citizens 
and the whole community and the country. 

The court to which I have referred, and with which I was 
somewhat associated as a boarder, w^as very soon after this- 
ordered to remove their quarters to Macon. As I saw that 
there was no further work which I could do at that time,, 
while there was nothing but one retreat after another in. 
progress, I took advantage of the train on which the mem- 
bers of this court were to leave, and took passage for Macon^ 
I hardly knew why. We arrived there on the evening of 
Friday, July 22nd, and spent that night there. Next morn- 
ing found me desolate and lonely, in the utmost bewilder- 
ment and ignorance as to the course to be pursued under 
the surrounding circumstances. I knew that the way was 
blocked up to the Atlanta army, and the raikoads w^ere 
about to be closed as to their running in that direction. I, 
however, after breakfast, strolled along down to the depot, 
thinking that I might discover, by the movements of trains, 
in what direction to shape my course. Just as I reached 
the station, carpet-bag in hand, I found a train on the eve 
of departing on a trip to Eufaula, Ala., where a large hos- 



424 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

pital liad been esiablislied for our sick and wounded. As 
an acquaintance, standing on the platform of one of the 
passenger cars, beckoned to me to get upon the train, I did 
so.. This gentleman was one of a relief committee sent up 
from South Georgia and Alabama to minister to the soldiers 
who w^ere in the army from that region such articles of food 
and clothing as they should need, and he was now return- 
ing. My decision was made, without further deliberation, 
to go to the Eufaula hospital, and there await future devel- 
opments. I was the more inclined to pay this visit to this 
place from the fact that a cousin of mine resided there, who 
had been my playmate, companion, and fellow-student at 
Athens, Ga., in our j^outhful days. We reached the place 
at a late hour that evening. On our way down we passed 
the place afterwards known by horrible notoriety as the 
. Anderson ville prison for the captured soldiers of the Fed- 
eral army. Even then there were in prison, said to be, thirty 
thousand of the victims of the cruelty and savage barbarity 
of the wretch Wirz. He, at the close of the war, was ar- 
rested by the Secretary of War of the United States in Au- 
gust, 1865,* and tried by a special military commission. He 
was indicted "for subjecting the prisoners to torture and 
great suffering, by confining them to unhealthy and un- 
wholesome quarters ; by exposing them to the inclemency of 
the winter, to the dews and burning sun of the summer ; by 
compelling the use of impure water ; by furnishing insuffi- 
cient and unwholesome food; also, for estabhshing 'the 
dead line,' and ordering the guard to shoot down any pri- 
soner attempting to cross it ; for keeping and using blood- 
hounds to hunt down prisoners attempting to escape ; and 
for torturing prisoners by confining them in the 'stocks.' 
Wirz, having been found guilty on these charges, was ex- 
ecuted by hanging on November 10, 1865." If half these 
particulars were true, it must be admitted that he deserved 
his fate. 



Death of Youngest Son. 425 

I remained at tlie residence of my cousin (who "was teach- 
ing a large school in Eufaula) two or three weeks. Here I 
found a large hosi)ital of Confederate soldiers, which I vis- 
ited; and as the Presbyterian church of this place was va- 
cant, they engaged my services for their pulpit every Sab- 
bath during my stay there, which covered about three 
months. About the last of August I had occasion to visit 
Montgomery, and during the time of my absence the ill- 
fated battle of Jonesboro', below Atlanta, was fought. Al- 
though rumors were abundant on the train of the battle 
then in progress, yet no particulars could be gathered that 
were reliable. On my return to Eufaula, at a late hour, 
after the family had retired, I also retired, and slept till 
dawn. I was awakened by a heavy knock at my door, and 
a dispatch was handed me, which I read by the grey light 
of early morning, containing these dreadful words : 

"Your son, Gray, was killed this morning by a fragment of shell.'' 
"[Signed] John Ingram, 

*' J.. A. A. Ge?i. of General Cheatham." 

I knew that others had passed through these gi'eat sor- 
rows in those fearful times of soul trials ; but for me, I 
must believe that this was a blow exceeding in terrible se- 
verity all my previous trials combined. O, my son! my 
son I my youngest, my darling boy ! Would any sacrifice 
have been too great could it have shielded thee from such a 
fate, and saved me from such a calamity ? Only seventeen, 
bright and promising and affectionate! Little, indeed, or 
rather not at all, did the thought of such a fatal result pass 
through my mind when, but a few months previously, I gave 
my unwise consent to his joining his brother and other 
friends in the army ! God only knows the bitterness, the 
heart-breaking agon}' of that dreadful morning. He had 
never made any profession of religion, but the testimony of 
his friends and kindred in the army, with whom he had 
held conferences on the subject from time to time during 



426 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

his brief term of service, gave me ground of hope that he 
was a Christian. Nothing else could soothe my grief ; yet 
I shall bear the wound upon my very soul down " with sor- 
row to the grave." 

To intensify my bitterness, I had an appointment to preach 
on that very day in the Eufaula Church. I lilled the ap- 
pointment, I hardly know how, No doubt I need the 
special pardoning love and mercy of my heavenly Father for 
dishonor done to the cross of Christ on that day. May I 
find that mercy on the day yet to come, from Him who gives 
us these gentle words of tenderness and love, " Like as a 
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them, that 
fear Him;" "He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that 
we are dust." I remained at Eufaula a few days in. the hope 
that I should receive a letter explanatory of, or enlarging 
the dispatch, but I waited in vain. And as I found the sus- 
pense intolerable, and my mind, in its dark and gloomy im- 
aginings, was suggesting all manner of dreadful things that 
might have occurred in connection with the remains of my 
boy, I resolved to return to the camp, if possible, and learn 
the true condition of matters by personal inquiry. On ar- 
riving at Macon I met a friend and former neighbor of East 
Mississippi, who belonged to the army, and I learned from 
him that my son Gorge, assisted by a young man of his 
company, who was also from La Grange, had been allowed 
to prepare a decent coffin for his remains, and they had laid 
them to rest in the cemetery at or near Jonesboro. This 
was, indeed, some mitigation of my sorrow, and subject of 
gratitude to God, as I reflected upon the dreadful treatment 
to which the bodies of the slain soldiers were sometimes 
subjected, and from all which his body had been rescued. 

As the camp where the defeated army of General Hood 
rested after the battle was distant not very far above Macon, I 
pursued my journey to that point, and found my boys, George 
and Charles Thompson, safe, and glad to welcome me. I 



Eesigns Office. 427 

spent several days with them, and j^reaehed four tnnes in 
General Vaughan's Brigade, the last of ^\hich was on an ap- 
pointed fast day, and once in General Lowry's brigade ; this- 
officer being a Baptist preacher of Mississippi of high stand- 
ing, and after the war an honored and esteemed member of 
the Board of Trustees of the University of Mississippi from 
1872 to 1876. Ascertaining that General Hood would soon 
break up his camp and move with the remnant of his troops 
to Nashville on the ill-fated expedition, resulting in the en- 
tire breaking up of the army and his removal from command, 
I saw at once that my connection with the commissionership 
of that army was dissolved, as I had no horse, nor was there 
any railway transportation, and to accompany the army on 
foot was a matter of utter impracticability. After a melan- 
choly visit to the grave of my slain soldier boy, I took leave 
of the boys and returned to Eufaula, arranged all my affairs 
there, gave up the church, resigned the office of commis- 
sioner, and left there about the latter part of October. 



CI-IAPTEK XLI. 

Appointment to a New Service, and Last Days or the Confederacy. 
— Gloom and Despondency. — Destitution or the South. 

ON arriving- in Montgomery I was told that there was in 
contemplation by the Synod of Alabama the founding of 
.an asylum for the orphans of deceased Confederate soldiers. 
I was offered the agency of that enterprise by a committee 
of the Synod, which I accepted ; and to illustrate the fearful 
•depreciation of the Confederate finances, whereas just be- 
fore, while acting as commissioner, my salary had been 
fixed at $2,500 to $3,000 and expenses, now I was employed 
at a salary of $600 por month, or $7,200 per annum, and 
.all expenses ! My first visit in my agency was to Mobile, 
where I was kindly received and hospitably entertained, in 
part by Captain Wheeler, a warm hearted elder of our 
church, and partly by Thomas A. Hamilton, Esq., a member 
of the committee on the asylum. Eev. Dr. Burgett, pastor 
of Government Street church of Mobile, w as very active and 
zealous in the cause, visiting with me and canvassing among 
the people. Very little success attended my efforts in that 
city. I cannot now recall statements made to me by differ- 
ent parties to account for this comparative failure; perhaps 
it was really owing to the destitution and poverty occasioned 
by the pressure of the war, which had then been in deso- 
lating progress for nearly four years. From Mobile, then, 
little was collected, and when I reported subsequently to 
the committee in Montgomery if I could show in cash or sub- 
scriptions anything above my bare expenses from that place, 
I cannot now recall it. But I had a set of j ewelry contributed 
io the cause by Mrs. Dr. Burgett, which I handed over, and 
a five hundred dollar bill of Confederate currency, handed 

428 



A Confederate Orphanage. 429 

me by a gentleman with whom I unexpectedly met on a car, 
a casual acquaintance from La Grange, Tenn. 

I s^Dent my time while in Mobile in presenting the cause 
in public and in private. I preached in the Government 
Street church and in the Jackson Street church, and at 
tended prayer-meetings, but collected with small success. 
As I was engaged in the work on a certain morning, I found 
my La Grange friend to wdiom I have just alluded, and on 
ascertaining w-hat I was engaged in, he simply remarked, 
" I know the cause is a good one, and I know the man who. 
is acting in it, and so I hand you my mite," or words to that 
import, and with that he placed in my hand the five hundred 
dollars. This, to be sure, was worth httle intrinsically, 
but it was, at that time, much the largest contribution I 
had received, and I felt encouraged and expressed my 
thanks. I remained in Mobile some days, until the friends 
of the cause, on consultation, decided that nothing could be 
done at that time. I returned to Montgomery, and after a 
brief stay there I visited Selma, and presented the asylum 
cause with very encouraging success. With the efficient 
cooperation of the pastor, Eev. A. M. Small, I succeeded in 
obtaining subscriptions and in cash about $40,000, of which 
amount the sum of $10,000 was donated by one gentleman 
in cash. He was editor of a very popular daily jDaper in 
Selma. 

This was truly satisfactory work, and all that remained 
to make it a grand success was to have bought cotton with 
the money, as could have been done, and had been done, 
by Mr. Whitmg in Montgomery. But as there was a 
shadow of the coming storm just then visible, I left the 
subscriptions in Selma, in order that I might visit Marion, 
28 miles distant, for the purpose of canvassing that place 
and its surroundings. I was sure of ultimately collecting 
every dollar of the Selma subscription on returning from 
this visit. In carrying out my proposed canvass, I laid 



430 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

tlie cause before the people of Marion, with the earnest 
helj) of Rev. Br. Raymond, and before the Fairview church, 
with its devoted pastor, Rev. R. A. Mickle, and Yalley 
Creek church, with the aid of Rev. James Watson ; and we 
were riding a great deal over the country visiting every 
family where it was supposed we could raise a contribution, 
but met with very indifferent success. It was just then, as I 
was about returning to Selma to finish the work which had 
been so auspiciously begun for collecting the subscriptions 
already made, when we learned that the little city of Selma 
w^as being surrounded by fortifications, expecting an attack, 
and that every citizen, without distinction, and all able- 
bodied men were set to work on the entrenchments and 
breastworks. I could not venture under such circumstances 
to return. As this was near the close of March, it would 
have been the surest and most speedy way to my closing 
the business of raising money or of doing anything else for 
the country, since on the 2d of April Major-General J. H. 
Wilson carried the works by assault around Selma, after a 
short but severe contest with General Forrest. This was a 
dreadful blow to the country, and thenceforth all was dark 
and gloomy, and one disaster after another befell the Con- 
federacy until the final consummation, which was reached 
by the surrender of Lee to Grant at Aj)pomattox, in Vir- 
ginia, and of Johnston to Sherman in North Carolina in 
April, 1865. My occui^ation being now gone, there was 
nothing left for me save to make my way to Mississippi, 
join my children, and provide ways and means whereby w^e 
could all begin life anew, and place ourselves as nearly as 
we could in statu quo ante-bellum. Having decided to give 
up the prosecution of my agency, I directed my first efforts 
to visiting Gainesville, Ala., where two prominent members 
of the Synodical Committee resided — Rev. Dr. Charles A. 
Stillman and Jonathan Bliss, Esq., an elder of the church. 
As I recall the time to which I here refer, when I took my 



Death of Key. A. M. Small. 431 

leave of that part of Alabama, and especially of the town 
of Selma, where I passed so large a part of iny tune with 
such congenial society, and so much enjoyment of genuine 
hospitality on the part of its excellent people, there rises up 
the image and memory of that devoted Christian pastor. 
Rev. A. M. Small. I regarded him then as one of the love- 
liest characters with whom I had ever associated. His 
godly life, his fidelity as the pastor of an important and in- 
fluential people, his patriotic devotion to the cause of his 
native South, his large and ever-widening hospitality; and 
all this orignating from an equally large and boundless gen- 
erosity of heart, so endeared him to every one who knew 
him, that the mention of his very name was the signal of 
praise and admiration. 

The particular exciting circumstance that gives ground 
for my notice of this beloved man is that he was one among 
the numerous victims of this cruel and relentless war, that 
had no respect for persons. At the time of the assault upon 
the defences of Selma he was behind the breast-works 
among the citizens, and when the city fell he was among 
those who fell. Thus ended the career of one who was in the 
prime of his young manhood and the bright field of his use- 
fulness, growing in every great element of mental, moral, 
and sj)iritual power, beloved by all who knew him, and be- 
wailed by every high-toned heart. 

I return from this digression to record other matters of 
more general interest, but which all partook of the gloomy 
character and coloring that cast their dark shadowing over 
the entire South. In fact, I do not consider it out of place 
to record that this gloomy aspect of public affairs had begun 
to pervade the Confederacy for some time previous to this 
epoch, and there was ever^'where apparent a despondency 
that could not be concealed; and although there was an 
earnest effort on the j^art of the public journals to light up 
hope on all possible occasions, yet these eftbrts were less 



432 John N. Waddel, D. B., LL. D. 

and less infl«uential in the minds of the people, and the con- 
clusion was finally reached that all was hopeless, and this, 
was followed by the reality that " all was lost." 

The attempt to record, in a brief sioace, the actual condi- 
tion of things at this juncture in our history w^ould be an 
utterly impossible task for any one, and the effort to make 
such a record would be vain and futile wdth the material at 
command. Let it be sufficient to say that, with few ex- 
ceptions, in cases where the farmers were remote from the 
seat of war, and secure from raids, or w^here enterprising 
commercial men had been successful in running the block- 
ade, and thus carrying out cotton and bringing in gold and 
greenbacks and provisions, the countr}^ was without a cur- 
rency, and, in many places, without means of living. The 
order of the Confederate government, that cotton in regions 
exposed to raids (and there w-ere very few places of that 
kind) should be burned, in order to prevent the enemy from 
seizing it, operated disadvantageously to those who obeyed 
the order, and opened the way for others to disreputable, 
and, one might say, dishonest dealings. As an illustration : 
Sometimes, in the interior, there might be found a large 
crop of cotton, packed and prepared for market, and an 
armed body of men, who were charged wdtli the business of 
burning cotton by the government, destroyed this croj), as 
the owner was law-abiding ; while, at the same time, in the 
same section of the countr}^, a farmer who had a crop in the 
same condition might meet the band of burners, and, by 
offering them some amount of money as a bribe, succeed in 
preserving his cotton, and thus have the opportunity o'f ob- 
taining a very high price for it, not in Confederate cur- 
rency, but in " greenbacks," as it was styled, dealing with 
camp-followers of the Federal army. But the large mass of 
the Southern people were left by the war in utter destitu- 
tion. The slaves were freed by the emancipation act, and 
the consequent want of laborers rendered the rich lands of 
no present value. 



1 



CHAPTER XLII. 

Incidents of Personal Histoey. — Eelease feom all Official Duties 
Growing Out of the War.— Visits to Old Homes. 

WHEN I decicled to abandon the agency in which I had 
been employed during three or four months, for the 
Yery sufficient reason that nothing could then be accom- 
plished, in consequence of the fact that the country from 
which the contributions were to be drawn was entirely over- 
run by a hostile body of troops, I turned my course to the 
State of Mississippi, my purpose being to retrace my jour- 
neyings to my former home. In doing this I made it my 
first object to visit Gainesville, Ala., and wind up in due form 
with the committee of the Synod the entire business of the 
orphan asylum, in so far as I was concerned. I found it by 
no means an easy matter to obtain necessary transportation, 
as there was no public way of travel then in operation. But 
in this state of matters, as I had always had the experience of 
a kind overuling Providence in every time of need, so now I 
met with great kindness at the hands of friends, by whose 
aid I was enabled to go from point to point of my route in 
comfort and safety to my destination. 

From Marion to Greensboro, by the kindness of Mr. 
Whitsett, an elder of Dr. Raymond's church, I was sent 
comfortably in a buggy, driven by his servant. There I was 
met by Rev. J. M. P. Otts, D. D., who took care of me hos- 
pitably in the family of Mr. McCrary, his father-in-law. I 
spent the Sabbath in Greensboro, and j)reached to a mere 
handful of frightened ladies, the news from Selma being 
alarming, and straggling cavalrj^men from Forrest's brigade 
passing west singly and in small squads day and night 

i33 



434 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

From Greensboro, I passed on Monday to the west side of 
the river Warrior, by means of a wagon, in which were stored 
away valuable articles belonging to Mrs. McCrary, and 
which were to be conveyed to a friend for safe-keeping. At 
the house of this friend (a Mr. Gullj) I spent the night com- 
fortably, and on the next morning I rode over to the house 
of a former friend, Captain Nott, who resided near Mr. 
Gully, in that part of Greene county known as " the Fork," 
i. e., the territory lying between the Warrior and Tombigby 
rivers. Thence j^rocuring a horse, after a brief delay, I rode 
on, crossing the Tombigbee river at Jones' Bluff, where I 
found a large party of refugees (making their escape from a 
reported raid from above), and so on the west side of the 
river I made my way to Gainesville, and there I was met 
with great kindness and entertained with great hospitality by 
my friend and brother, Eev. C. A. Stillman, D. D., and made 
his house my home for a week or ten days. During my 
abode in this place I made a formal report of my agency to 
Dr. Stillman and Mr. Bliss, the two committeemen. Hav- 
ing made a full and accurate statement of all moneys re- 
ceived, and all subscriptions made, and all my expenses, to- 
gether with all other disbursements, I deposited with these 
gentlemen my book of accounts and the cash in hand, w^hich 
last amounted to the (apparently) large sum of te7i thousand 
dollars ! But alas ! it consisted solely of Confederate dol- 
lars. 

In Gainesville I had the pleasure of meeting the family 
of Colonel James Brown, who had taken refuge in this 
place from their home in Oxford, Miss. Colonel Brown had 
been a member of the Board of Trustees of the University 
of Mississippi, and therefore w^e had been associated to- 
gether there, and always had been warm friends. I was 
much gratified to meet him and his warm-hearted family, 
after a long period of separation ; under the circumstances 
it was a sort of green and cheering spot amid the desert of 



Condition at Close of the War. 435 

our environments. After preaching- in Gainesville once, and 
finding that the surrender of the Confederacy was a fact be- 
yond all question, I left that place and made my way to 
Meridian by a branch road to Gainesville Junction, and 
thence down the Mobile and Ohio railroad. 

I have to record, with regard to the period that elapsed 
from the reported surrender, on the 9th of April (about 
which time I left Gainesville), to the middle of the ensuing 
summer of 1865, that my financial interests were character- 
ized by the most complete condition of impecuniosity con- 
ceivable. All along through the dreary years of the pro- 
tracted war, I had never known anything like scarcity, or 
the want of a dollar at any time, having such funds always 
in hand as carried me and mine safely and satisfactorily 
through. But when I left Gaines\dlle, about the middle of 
April, I remember well that I had in my purse $800 nomi- 
nally, which was mere worthless paper. Then if any one 
had been so idiotic as to steal my purse, it would have been 
found literally true that he had stolen trash ! As my ulti- 
mate destination would most naturally be La Grange, Tenn., 
whence my highly eccentric travels had begun on December 
17, 18G2, and as I had matters of private and family concern 
to look after at various points in the central and northern 
parts of Mississippi, I was detained in the needed attention 
to these things, so that I did not evon reach La Grange on 
a brief visit until about the 1st of July ; but that was suffi- 
cient to fill me with sadness, when, with a single glance, I 
beheld around me the desolations wrought by the ruthless 
hand of war. There lay in the dust the remnants of the 
once massive walls of the college building, its brick used by 
the ruthless soldiery for huts and chimneys during their 
occupation of the ill-fated town, and the apparatus and in- 
struments of illustration of scientific truth, and its libraries, 
in their idiomatic i^hrase, " confiscated," or destroyed and 
stolen, and the once promising institution, now without " a 



436 John N. Waddeix, D. D. LL. D. 

local habitation or a name," vanished and buried " among 
the things that were ! " 

My time was passed partly in paying closing visits of 
brief duration to the places where I had made my war- 
homes ; and among these, not one in this way attracted my 
presence more strongly, by the many and pleasant seasons 
of enjoyment afforded me during the toilsome season and 
sad scenes of the war, than the home of my long-tried 
friend, Mrs. Evans, of Newton county, Miss. She was a 
sister of Rev. Richmond Mclnnis, so long an evangelist of 
the Presbytery of Central Mississippi and editor of a 
Presbyterian journal published in New Orleans, just at 
the opening of the w^ar, Avho had also conducted a similar 
journal previously in Jackson, Miss. I had been the 
pastor of Mrs. Evans from 1842 to 1848, at Mt. Moriah 
church, when I iTsided at Montrose church in Jasper 
county. Miss. It had always been one of my favorite re- 
sorts during the time of peace, before the days of war, and 
it was one of my many pleasant places of rest and refuge 
during my wandering life of toil and sadness, while hostili- 
ties were in progress. I also paid similar visits to Jackson, 
Miss., and it was on occasion of one of those visits that the 
exciting intelligence came to us of the assassination of 
President Lincoln, and this only increased the wild confu- 
sion and manifold gloomy forebodings of the communit}^ 
My principal j^lace of temporary sojourn, however, was Kos- 
ciusko, where my daughters were engaged in teaching. I 
had heard nothing from my son George since he had left 
Montgomery to join General Johnston's command in North 
Carolina, which was at the time when the Southern army 
was making its last forlorn stand against Sherman, after 
his "march to the sea" and "the burning of Columbia, 
S. C." I knew that the fighting was over, and naturally, I 
supposed that George and Mr. Thompson would be return- 
ing home, if ahve, of which last contingency I was utterly 



Condition at Close of the War. 437 

in tlie dark. It occurred to me to dispatch to my brother, 
in Montgomer3% for any information he might have on the 
subject. Bat as I was penniless, I knew I could not pay 
for a telegram. As a dernier resort, I laid the case before 
the operator at one of the stations, by name Monroe, and as 
he had married the daughter of a friend of mine, he was 
kind enough to allow me to forward the dispatch. I, how- 
ever, received no tidings in response, and my message, I 
imagine, never was received by my brother. 

I will record another similar favor received by me in my 
destitution, and I mention such incidents, which, under 
other circumstances, might savor of indelicacy, in order to 
illustrate the providential kindness of God in never leaving 
me without His favor in time of need, but in raising up 
friends for me always in my extremities. I had no way of 
travel save by rail, and wished to visit Oxford, Miss. I had 
an acquaintance who was ticket agent on the railroad be- 
tAveen Meridian and Jackson (the son of my old friend. 
Judge AVatts, of East Mississippi), and, applying to him for 
a ticket, on the faith of future payment, he also gave me 
credit for the amount. I add that, in addition to the ex- 
pression of my heartfelt thanks to both of these gentlemen, 
I promptly, and not long after, remitted to them, severally, 
the amount due for the message and the ticket. Being still 
in a state of great anxiety about George, I borrowed a horse 
and rode up to Kosciusko, just before or about the time of 
my intended trip to Oxford. As I passed into the town, I 
was recognized by a lady of my acquaintance, who, during 
the war, had been a refugee from Memphis, and who had 
just returned, after a business trip, to Kosciusko. From her 
I learned that she had met George in Memphis, on his re- 
turn from the army, in perfect safety. One may conceive, 
but I cannot adequately express in words, the joyful emo- 
tions of my heart at this news, and my gi-atitude to my 
heavenly Father for his unceasing loving kindness to me. 



438 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

As I sat at dinner with Brother Alexander on that very day, 
a servant called to me, saying that "a young man at the 
door wished to see me," and behold, there was the dear 
boy himself in very deed ! Having ascertained in Memphis 
from Dr. Gray's family, as he there had taken up his abode, 
that his sisters were in Kosciusko, he had taken the train, 
and come down to find them. There was joy in that house, 
it may easily be imagined. The evening was spent in free 
and varied interchange of narratives, of incidents, and ad- 
ventures occurring during our separation, and we all felt 
once more comparatively happy. There was still naturally 
in all our hearts a feeling of subdued sadness, as we recog- 
nized one vacancy in our once happy circle, broken now, and 
no more to be restored on earth. Not long after this, every- 
thing of that state of our affairs was radically and j^erma- 
nently reorganized. Mr. C. V. Thompson had returned 
from the army, and removed my youngest daughter from. 
Kosciusko to his father's house, in Fayette county, Tenn. 
The fact of his marriage is recorded on page 417 of this 
memoir. James D. West, who had been captured near Ma- 
rietta, Ga., in 18G4, after an imprisonment on Johnson's 
Island of more than one j^ear, returned later than the date 
of these just now mentioned facts, and, stopping in Kosci- 
usko, took part in the school until the close of the session,, 
and then removed his position to my former field of labor, 
in Jasper county, and took charge of my old churches of 
Montrose and Mt. Moriah, making his home with my friend 
Mrs. Evans. I then, with George, made a journey to Ox- 
ford first. While there in Oxford, at the home of my excel- 
lent friends^ H. E. Rascoe and Mrs. J. E. Rascoe, the noble 
daughter of the first friend I ever made in Oxford, in 1847^ 
Dr. Z. Conkey, I met with a still more remarkable instance 
of generous kindness at the hands of Mrs. Eascoe. At her 
request, I succeeded in having, at some store in the place, a 
fifty-dollar bill of greenback currency exchanged for two 



Travelling Under Difficulties. 43^ 

twenties and a ten. On returning the money to her, she 
placed one of the twenty-dollar bills in my hands as a gift ; 
so that I might say gratefully, adopting the language of the 
Psalmist, with my whole heart, "Surely goodness and 
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life," judging by 
my past experience, and especially during these latter days 
of gloom and privation. Surely no one had ever greater 
reason than I to acknowledge the remarkably kind and 
abundant supply of noble and thoughtful friends, into whose 
hearts He had sent the impulses of such generosity as haa 
been manifested toward me. 

I had owned a small farm at La Grange, and my servants 
had been cultivating it during my exile, and as there was 
no railway in oj^eration toward La Grange beyond Holly 
Springs, I conveyed a message by some sure method to one 
of the colored men who had been left on the premises, to 
the effect that I desired him to send a conveyance down 
from La Grange to meet George and myself at Holly 
Springs, and carry us to our old home, designating the day 
when we should probably reach Holly Springs. 

I must be indulged in an attempt to describe our mode of 
transportation from Oxford to Holly Springs, as it will give 
the reader some conception of the utter demolition of every- 
thing like the facilities and conveniences of passage and lo- 
comotion that had resulted from the war, and which before 
the war had been in successful operation in that region of 
the countr}^ The distance between the towns of Oxford 
and Holly Springs is thirty miles by rail. Over the first 
thirteen miles we rode on a flat car, quite a company of us 
together, drawn by a very small engine. This placed us on 
the south bank of the Tallahatchee river. There we were 
reduced to locomotion on our feet, crossing on a flat ferry- 
boat, as the railroad bridge had been destroyed, and on the 
north side of the river we found the track again "^dth a flat- 
car standing waiting for us, drawn by a single mule ! Oa 



440 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

this, at the rate of five miles per hour, we performed the re- 
mainder of the trip, reaching Holly Springs about 2 o'clock 
p. M., having been on the way some six hours, a space ordi- 
narily requiring but little more than one by steam. AVe 
arrived there in safety after all our difficulties, which really 
afforded us more amusement than inconvenience. 

This visit paid to La Grange found us in Dr. Gray's 
family once more, after an absence of two years and a half. 
The interval from our arrival there until my settlement in 
Oxford is of sufficient interest to admit of its being recorded 
in a separate chapter. 



CHAPTEE XLIII. 

Pkivate Histoky.— Attendance at the Meeting of the Presbyters 
OF Memphis. — Meeting at Holly Spbings. — Betukn to Oxford, 
AND Settlement There. 

I HAVE recorded something already in reference to my 
financial deficiencies, and as to the manner of their alle- 
viation. But I must trespass somewhat upon the patience 
of my reader by some further incidents, which, however 
trivial they may seem at this distant day of peace and pros- 
perity, loomed up largely to me just in that day of poverty 
and depression. As I was in need of some articles of com- 
fort, and as George had returned in a somewhat dilapidated 
condition in respect of raiment, I applied to my brother-in- 
law. Dr. Gray, for information as to some source whence I 
could effect a loan of needed funds. He promptly assured 
me that it could be easily effected in this way : Said he, I 
have in my care for safekeeping the sum of six hundred 
dollars, belonging to your servant AVash, being money 
which he has made by cultivating your farm in cotton, and 
selling it to the Federals at high prices during your ab- 
sence, and I know that you can borrow of him whatever 
you desire. Accordingly, on application to the man, he 
readily placed in my possession $100, which I proposed, of 
course, to repay at the earliest possible period. 

The meeting of the Presbytery of Memphis, of which I 
was a member, occurring about the 25th of August, Dr. 
Gray and I rode to Danceyville, the place of meeting, where 
I met many of our brethren, and among them. Rev. Philip 
Thompson, an old friend, who was supplying some country 
churches in that region. We met, and among the first 

441 



442 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

things lie said, was tha^ he had a message for me, and tak- 
ing me aside, to my great surprise he handed me one hun- 
dred dollars i7i gold ! The explanation of this transaction 
was this: It may be remembered that a body of earnest 
and devoted friends of the college at La Grange had en- 
tered into an obhgation to i)ay the sum of two thousand 
dollars as a salary for me, to induce me to accept the profes- 
sorship to which I had been elected by the Synod in 1856. 
Of this number Dr. Macklin was one, and each of them 
thus combined, voluntarily agreed to insure me this salary 
for five years. The contract was honorably fulfilled as long 
as I was permitted to serve, but my subsequent departure,, 
on compulsion in 1862 from La Grange, brought the matter- 
to an end. In the interim, during the progress of the war,, 
Dr. Macklin had died, and although I had considered that 
this arrangement was void, and had not expected such a 
payment for a moment, or had even thought at all on the 
subject, yet, as Mr. Thompson informed me in our inter- 
view. Dr. Macklin had left with Mrs. M., on his dying bed, 
the solemn injunction to pay to me this amount, which wa& 
due by him as his part of the pledged salary, and which 
would have been paid me, had an opportunity occurred, be-^ 
fore I left. This was the fulfillment cf Mrs. M.'s commis- 
sion, according to her husband's last request. The transac- 
tion was as unexpected as it was welcome, and gratefully 
received. To make an end of my gradual recuperation, two 
more items remain to be added to this list of good things 
just then occurring. Returning to La Grange I met with a 
gentleman who was indebted to me for a small sum of money 
for servant hire before the war, amounting to some sixty 
dollars or more, who honorably discharged the debt, and. 
then -visiting Memphis, I exchanged my gold for currency 
at the market premium. These operations which I here re- 
cord in fiscal affairs were not the result of any financial skill 
on my part (to the possession of which quality I could not 



Payment of Old Debts. 443 

lay the slightest claim), but simply as the regular process 
of a kind Providence in caring for me. I realized then a 
feeling of safety and comparative independence, to which I 
had been a stranger since the fall of the Southern Con- 
federacy. 

On my arrival in La Grange, after my visit to Memphis, 
I sent for Wash, my colored man, from whom I had re- 
ceived $100, and informed him that I was now ready to re- 
turn the amount I had received from him a few days pre- 
viously. To my great surprise, he utterly dechned to re- 
ceive one cent of it. He reasoned the case out thus: "I 
made that money out of your farm, I occuiDied your houses 
with my family, and cultivated the land with your mules. 
You were always a kind master; the money is yom's." In 
thinking over this incident afterwards, two reflections oc- 
curred to me growing out of the conduct of this man : 1. 
That our Northern fellow-citizens would have been surprised 
at the transaction had they known the circumstances ; 2. 
This colored 7nan, in his sense of honor, would have put ta 
shame many a white man of high standing in society. I 
enjoined upon him, when he left, that if he should ever, at 
any time, become involved in difficulties in his business of 
farming, to inform me of it; and I am thankful that I had 
afterwards an opportunity to redeem my promise by re- 
sponding to an apphcation which he made to me for aid in 
his embarrassments in farming. Before my final settlement 
in Oxford, I spent a great deal of the time in visiting in the 
region above and below that place, and preaching in Gre- 
nada, Water Valley, La Grange, Holly Springs, (assisting 
in the latter place at a j)rotracted meeting for nine days,) 
and at Danceyville (at Presbytery), at Somerville, Tenn., 
and at Hickory Writhe. After these pleasant labors, spent 
with friends and with churches in whose pulpits I had 
preached many times previous to the war, I at last once 
more found a dehghtful home in Oxford, Miss. There I re- 



444 John L. Waddel, D. D., LL D. 

newed iny labors as a member of the Faculty of the Uni- 
versity for nine busy and toilsome years of rarely varied ex- 
perience, during the period known in the history of the 
times as the Reconstruction, and, in political parlance, as 
the '•' carpet-bag government of the Southern States." 



1 

i 



CHAPTER XLIY. 

GovEKNOB Sharkey's Teem of Service. — Oxford as My Home. — 
Election to the Chancellorship of the University. — Mar~ 
RiAGE. — Cake of the Oxford Church. — Address Before the 
Legislature. 

I WAS now a widower, with only one member of my once 
large and liaj^py family present wdtli me. Out of eight 
children, there remained now only three living, four having 
died in infancy, and one having fallen in the military service 
of his country; one soldier boy having returned from the 
war, and my two daughters having left my care to preside 
over other homes of their own, and render other circles as 
happy as that in which they once moved. I found a tempo- 
rary abode with my friends, the dear Rascoe family, where 
I was made as haj^py and welcome as one could be in so 
bereaved circumstances. George, my only surviving son, 
spent a few weeks among his friends in Tennessee, until the 
time should arrive for him to join me in Oxford. 

The first event of historical interest and importance to 
the State of Mississippi was the appointment, by the Presi- 
dent (Andrew Johnson) of the United States, of that truly 
great and noble jurist and statesman, Hon. William L. 
Sharkey, as Provisional Governor of the State. No man 
of all those whose names stood prominent and eminent 
among the great and good citizens of the State could, by 
any possibility, have been found whose aj)pointment would 
have been so acceptable and universally satisfactory to the 
people of Mississippi. We felt that surely we had been un- 
der the special protection of a divine providence, who had 
put it in the heart of the then ruler of the country to make 

445 



446 John N. Wadell, D. D., LL. D. 

so wise and acceptable an appointment. His aclministra' 
tion in other and more general departments of State policy 
is not mine to dwell upon, but must be assigned to others 
more competent to do him the justice to which his memory 
is so richly entitled. It has always been, in my judgment, 
among the many acts of Governor Sharkey's official service, 
that one which merits admiration and reflects high honor 
upon this noble man, that among his first executive orders 
was a call to the Board of Trustees of the University to 
convene at Oxford, and reorganize the University, whoso ex- 
ercises had been suspended during four years. 

As the Southern States were all in what may be con- 
sidered state of anarchy, especially in the view of the 
victorious party, the same measure was inaugurated and 
adopted in reference to all that had been engaged in what 
was called the rebellion, viz., Provisional Governors were 
appointed for every Southern State. But among them all, 
none had greater reason for self-gratulation than the State 
of Mississij)pi. A very serious obstacle in the way of the 
Board of Trustees to the execution of the Governor's in- 
structions in reference to the reorganization of the Univer- 
sity met them at the outset, which was, that the State trea- 
sury was emjDty. In order to remedy this condition of 
things, an order was issued from headquarters to the proper 
officers in the various counties, to collect a tax of two dollars 
per bale on all the cotton in the limits of the State. There 
was a large quantity of this staple in possession of the 
planters, and of the amount thus collected, Governor Shar- 
key had, the sum of $6,000 set apart to meet the necessities 
of the University. Accordingly, in pursuance of the Gov- 
ernor's order, the Board met in Oxford on the 81st of Au- 
gust, and proceeded to elect a Faculty, and provide for the 
re-opening of the institution at the earliest practicable date. 
The names of all the members of the Board who were pres- 
ent and participated in the election I cannot now recall, but 



Re-opening of the University. 447 

-there was a quorum competent to transact all the business 
to which their attention was required. The result of the 
action of the Board was as follows : 

1. They elected a Faculty of only four members, of which 
for Chancellor, they selected John N. Waddel, D. D. 

For Professor of Mathematics, General Claudius W. 
Sears, M. A. 

For Professor of Greek, Rev. John J. Wheat, D. D. 
For Professor of Latin, Alexander J. Quinche, A. M. 

2. They ai)j)ropriated the salaries and perquisites to the 
Faculty as follows : For the chancellor, $2,000 and a resi- 
dence; for each professor, $1,500 and a residence. 

While this amounted to $6,500, and exceeded the appro- 
j)riation from the State treasury, it was supposed that any 
possible deficit would be abundantly supplemented by the 
proceeds of tuition fees. This anticipation was more than 
realized subsequently. 

3. They directed that the exercises of the "University 
should be regularly resumed on the 1st of October, 1865, 
and this, accordingly, was successfully done. The Trustees, 
as stated, felt that these salaries were as liberal as, under 
the circumstances surrounding them, they could venture to 
appropriate ; and this was, indeed, a very much better pro- 
vision for the Faculty than was expected. But on the 
opening of the University in October, it was at once brought 
to view that the patronage would be beyond our most san- 
guine expectations as to the number of students, as the im- 
poverished condition of the country was such as to justify 
the anticipation of a diminished attendance of students 
comparatively. On the other hand, as it became apparent 
in the progress of affairs, the privation of all educational 
facilities to which the young men had been subjected 
by the demands of the country for soldiers to enter the 
armies of defence, had been felt by them as a heavy mis- 
fortune. And now, Lhese facilities being again presented 



448 John N. Waddel, D. D, LL. D. 

on their return, tended to arouse in the in the most eager 
and ardent desire and thirst for education. Four long 
weary years of camp life and war experience had changed 
many of the survivors of these perils from thoughtless and 
daring boyhood to reflecting and serious manhood, and the 
participation in the pursuits of war, in which they had been 
engaged, had only prepared them for a higher and keener 
api^reciation of the advantages of peace. The average age 
of the students of the first session of the University after 
the war was above that which is found among a similar 
number in ordinary times. This is easily accounted for 
when it is known that, while the age of admission in 1861 
was sixteen, and, in all probability, these identical students 
would have been applicants for admission at that time, and 
of that age, there were two reasons preventing this. The 
first was that the exercises of tho University were sus- 
pended in consenuence of the existence of war. Tho 
second was the direct result of the first. These young 
men, by a large majority, who would have been admitted 
into the University in other times, volunteered as soldiers 
for the war. The natural end of this state of things was that, 
having spent in camp four years, they were candidates for the 
University classes at the age of twenty, instead of sixteen. 
It must be recorded here that the long privation they had 
suffered gave them a far higher appreciation of these ad- 
vantages now furnished them, and stimulated their minds 
to a more severe application to stud}^, and diminished pro- 
portionally that tendency to frivolity and idleness so gen- 
erally prevalent among college students. My experience, 
therefore, of the student-body of the session 1865-'G6, was 
that they were characterized by diligence, devotion and 
earnestness in study, and orderly, gentlemanly, and excej:*- 
tional observance of rule. That they were not advanced in 
the regular curriculum of study is not surprising at all, as 
the}' had enjoyed no opportunity for preparation, and this 



I 



Students at Eeoeganization. 44^ 

part of our work must needs be performed by the members 
of the Faculty. Indeed, the post-belkim work of the Uni- 
Yersity seemed more like the beginning than the resump- 
tion of suspended exercises of the University. But we 
gave our most zealous and conscientious thoughts and la- 
bors to the work which we found pressing upon us. Very 
many of the one hundred and ninety-three young men who 
made their appearance on our campus were really only be- 
ginning the rudiments of language and science, and it was 
not for a moment to be conceived that we were to put our- 
selves upon the high ground of advanced professorships, 
and dismiss worthy young aspirants after knowledge be- 
cause they were backward and ignorant. "We felt it our 
duty to take them by the hand and raise them from the 
lower to the higher, from the simpler to the more solid and 
advanced departments of an education. In passing, I state 
that, while we were acting thus in obedience to a stern de- 
mand of the most imperious obligation of duty, there were 
not wanting self-styled educators even in Mississippi, who 
felt called upon to publish criticisms upon us as incompe- 
tent for our positions as at the head of the highest institu- 
tion of learning in the State, betraying our trust and de- 
grading the cause of the higher education. We felt con- 
scious, however, that we were willing to bear the charge 
thus invidiously brought against us, as we were abundantly 
sustained by the public sentiment of the State, as well as hy 
the hapj)y results of our earnest and devoted work for our 
students. 

The most advanced class formed during this first session 
was the Junior Class, and w as composed of only five young^ 
men. Our Sophomore Class, however, was much larger, 
consisting of forty-seven in regular enrollment ; the rest of 
the students were at various stages of advancement. We 
graduated four in 18G7, and twenty-four in 1868. 

Certain facts in my personal history demand a record jusi 
29 



450 John N. Waddel, D. T>., LL. T>. 

at this point, as they are inseparable from any proper me- 
moir of my life and labors as an educator and as a minister 
of the gospel. I will add, that if I \Yas ever enabled, in the 
providence of God, to exert a wholesome influence over 
others, it was due, in great measure, to these two facts. 

It was a singular fact that all through the troublous times 
of the war the subject of entering again into the marriage 
relation not only formed no part of my thoughts, but w^as 
really repugnant to my feelings. The idea of assuming ad- 
ditional responsibilities with those already resting upon me 
always seemed to me preposterous. My daughters were 
helpless and dependent upon me, and my boys in the army 
also constituted a source of deep and abiding anxiety. Be- 
sides all this, I had no home, nor any place where to receive 
a wife. In this state of mind and feeling I wore my life on, 
lonely and sad, until peace was established. Called as I 
was to the chancellorship of the University, with a home 
and the means of support for a family furnished to me, the 
memory of the past brought t(3 me the home joys and social 
comforts I once enjoyed, and I felt that I should be unhappy 
and the position I held would be incomplete without some 
one to share it with me. Just as always has been found in 
my experience, a kind providence in this case also brought 
to me the very one who was to fill the vacancy and to restore 
the long-lost light of my dwelling. I had known the lady 
thus suggested to me before leaving La Grange, and met 
her in Memphis on a visit paid to that city after my return. 
She was Mrs. Harriet A. Snedecor {nee Godden), and her 
home was in Lexington, Miss. ; and, without further details, 
let it suffice to record that, after a delay of five months, we 
were united in marriage, on the 31st of January, 1866. As 
I look back through the quarter century which has elapsed 
from that time, I am sure that our union has been replete 
with every blessing, and nothing has occurred to mar my 
enjoyment, so far as she was concerned ; and, on the con- 



Call of De. Witheespoon. 451 

trary, on the occurrence of those inevitable evils to which 
this world is subject and man is heir in his imperfect state, 
she has always proved to me the source of comfort and wise 
counsel, and has shared in all my burdens and shed light 
on my pathway in my darkest days. Thus, by God's pecu- 
liar favor shown to me, I began my third married life un- 
der very bright auspices. My son George I now entered as 
a student in the Sophomore Class, and Mrs. Waddel's only 
child, a boy of ten years, was placed in a good training 
school in Oxford. More of this again. 

About the time of the opening of the exercises of the Uni- 
versity, in 1865, Eev. T. Dwaght "Wither spoon, who had been 
ordained and installed pastor of the Oxford Presbyterian 
church just about one year previous to the war, and who 
had served the church with great acceptableness, and had 
inspired the entire community w^ith lore and admiration, re- 
turned to his heme and to his church, after having served as 
oha]:)lain during the war. His return w as hailed with de- 
hglit by his friends and by all the citizens ; but the condi- 
tion of the church had become greatly changed in numbers 
as well as financial ability within the four years that had 
elapsed since his entrance into the military service. I mean 
to have it understood that he was not only a chaplain, but 
had previously enlisted as a private in a company that was 
organized in Oxford, called the " Lamar Kiiles," under the 
command of Captain Green. I have been credibly in- 
formed that he took active part in the ranks, and fought as 
a soldier in the many battles in which his company was en- 
gaged. Like all the survivors of these perils and hardships, 
he found himself in veiy reduced pecuniary circumstances. 
As stated above, the situation as to the church was not much 
better. By one cause or another the membershii3 of the 
church had become greatly reduced in numbers, as when 
investigation was made it W'as ascertained that the maximum 
did not exceed forty in all. Under such circumstances, it 



452 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

became necessary for the pastor and the members of the 
church to seek a dissolution of the relation, and to make 
other arrangements, though with the greatest reluctance on 
both sides- 

The Second Presbyterian church of the city of Memphis 
was about this time vacant. During the time of the occu- 
pation of that city by the Federal troops the pulpit was 
filled by Rev. R. C. Grundy, D. D., who had been pastor 
before the war, and who, being an ardent Union man, was 
permitted to serve the church, or that portion of it that was 
left, until he removed to Dayton, Ohio, where he died, on 
the 4th of July, 18G5. Dr. Gray had filled the same pulpit 
toward the close of the w^ar, but had returned to his La 
Grange home, so that this important church was now va- 
cant. In a correspondence with Henry Wade, Esq., an 
elder of that church, a godly and prominent citizen of Mem- 
phis, engaged in business there, I stated the facts of the 
case to him in terms so favorable to Rev. Mr. Witherspoon 
that they invited him to visit them, and the result w^as that 
he was called to the pastorate of the Second church unani- 
mously, and served the church faithfully and successfully 
for years, and was induced at last to leave Memphis only on 
account of failing health, which required a residence in a 
more congenial climate and a less laborious and exacting 
work. That church has enjoyed the services of talented 
and eloquent pastors since Dr. Witherspoon's term of ser- 
vice with them expired ; but I do not hesitate to record here 
that no one of them all has ever acquired a more exalted ap- 
preciation by the membership of that church of his labors 
in the pulpit, in his pastoral visitation and sympathetic 
ministrations, in their joys and their afflictions, than that 
felt for their beloved and honored pastor, Rev. T. D. With- 
erspoon. I claim to be a competent witness in this case, as 
I bore to him the relation of instructor in his university 
course at Oxford. He was not only a favorite pupil with 



Ministerial Work at Oxford. 453 

rae, but this was his status Avith all his professors and with 
all his companions. A more lovely character I have never 
known. He was graduated from the University with the 
highest honors in the class of 1856, and finished his theo- 
logical course of study at the Columbia Seminary, in 1859. 
He has filled the pulpits of some of our most important and 
prominent churches, and always with the greatest accex^t- 
ableness and edification of the people of God. He received 
tlie honorary degree of D. D. in 1868, and that of LL. D, in 
1884, both conferred by his Alma Mater, the University of 
Mississippi. 

The church in Oxford being now vacant by the removal 
of the pastor to Memphis, they asked me to supply them, 
which I did, preaching every Sabbath, conducting w^eekly 
prayer-meetings, and teaching a Bible class on every Sab- 
bath morning ; all of which was voluntary on my part, and 
in addition to the duties of the office of Chancellor. I may 
say here that this double work I performed, serving the 
church with the University for several years, until the 
church became strong enough to call a pastor, after which 
I was so strongly solicited by a church near Oxford (I mean 
the Hopewell church), to which I had ministered before the 
war, to give them first, two Sabbaths of each month, and 
afterwards three, that I consented, and in this way my time 
was quite fully occupied. 

The exercises of the University continued to go on dur- 
ing the year 18G5, and when the Trustees saw the large 
number of students with which the session opened, they 
felt justified in increasing the salaries of the Faculty to 
$2,500 for the Chancellor and $2,000 to professors, and these 
have been the salaries since. 

Shortly after the opening of the University in October, 
1865, the Legislature which had been elected on the 2d of 
October, by order of a convention, called by Provisional 
Governor Wm. L. Sharkey, met on the 16th and proceeded 



454 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

to the business of re-organizing the State government, with 
Benjamin G. Humphreys as Governor. One of their ear- 
liest acts, in point of time, was the issuance of a joint invita- 
tion to myself, from the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives, to deliver an address on "Public Education." This 
was accordingly accepted, and I delivered the address in 
the Hall of Eeprcsentatives, in Jackson, Miss., on the even- 
ing of Wednesday, October 25, 1865. My address was 
published by order of the Legislature. 
An outline of the address is as follows : 

1. The country is to be congratulated upon the restora- 
tion of peace, though still left amid the desolations of the 
war, and on being now furnished with a grand opportunity 
for the untrammelled restoration and renovation of all the 
great interests of the State. 

2. Among those interests, none transcend in importance 
those of education. 

3. The establishment of a thorough system of public 
schools, and this system combined with the reorganization 
of the University upon an enlarged scheme, will complete 
the circle of education, as concentric, not antagonistic, but 
mutually auxiliary, and free to the culture and training of 
all Mississippi an s. 

4. The order, discipline, and general government of the 
institutions of the State for literature and science should be 
parental as nearly as possible, not military, the object and 
purpose being to train our youth to be citizens, not soldiers. 

5. Military academies should be provided for training sol- 
diers ; literary and scientific institutions for citizens. 

6. The Department of Preparatory Education demands 
ceaseless and wise consideration, in order that our youth 
may reaj) the benefit of the higher learning by preliminary 
training. 

7. Snch a system, well-matured and developed, will pre- 
clude the necessity of our patronizing the institutions of 



Address on Public Education. 455 

those States unfriendly to our customs and interests, to 
which "\ve nave heretofore been tributary, and upon which 
we have been dependent. 

8. The man who devotes his time, talents, energies, and 
prayers to this grand enterprise of public education, will 
reap his most precious and enduring reward in the eleva- 
tion and greatness of the State, and when his career is 
closed, those who ask for his memorial may well be pointed 
to the old inscription, " jSi monumentum queer is^ circum- 
spice.'' 



CHAPTEK XLY, 

Advance or Univeesity Woek. — Additions to the Facttlty. — Annoy- 
ances Theeatening Distukbance. — Close of First Session. — 
Sketches op Some Peofessoes, — Changes op State Goyeknmenx. 

— rOLITICAL TeOUBLE IN PeOSPECT. 

SUCH was the unexpected increase of students that the 
work required of the Faculty then elected was pros- 
pectively becoming burdensome. There was, therefore, 
plainly presented to the Board of Trustees the necessity of 
adding to the teaching force, and thus of dividing the labors 
of the Faculty. So they proceeded to fill the chair of 
Physics, Astronomy and Civil Engineering by the appoint- 
ment of General Alexander P. Stewart, who declined the 
icall. General Francis A. Shoup was then elected, and ac- 
cepted this appointment, and continued as the incumbent 
of the office until the year 1868. To the chair of Enghsh 
Literature also, Eev. S. G. Burney was elected during the 
first session, and to the chair of Ethics, in 1866, Hon. L. Q. 
C. Lamar was called, but this professorship he only occu- 
pied one year, when he resigned and accepted the chair of 
Governmental Science and Law. With this Faculty we 
succeeded gradually in bringing the various departments of 
the course into somewhat more orderly combination. We 
have referred in a x^receding part of our sketch to the char- 
acter of the student-body as being orderly and studious, 
and so it was. And yet we were not without certain annoy- 
ances which were thrust upon us by the authorities at 
Washington, who regarded it as essential to station a garri- 
son in the towns of the State, to guard against any out- 
break of the spirit of rebellion, which was thought to be 

456 



Seniors of 1860-'61. 457 

only restrained, but not by any means crushed out, or en- 
tirely subdued. The troubles which occasionally came 
upon us from this arrangement, in all probability, would not 
have taken place had it not been that the garrison was 
made up of colored soldiers, who wore disposed to make un- 
necessary and wanton interferences with the students whom 
they met on the sidewalks. On the other hand, unwise as 
it was, still it was a most natui'al impulse in the young stu- 
dents to resent such aggressive manifestations of these men. 
The result was an occasional outbreak, which might have 
led to serious consequences but for the utmost prudence on 
the part of the University authorities, and the exertion of 
official restraint on the part of the commandant of the gar- 
rison. With these slight disturbances, which were never 
allowed to proceed to any serious results, the session proved 
to be a most gratifying success to all. It was made known 
to us, in the course of the first session, that a fine class of 
joung men, w^ho constituted the senior class of 1860-'61, 
had finished their course and would have been graduated 
at the usual annual Commencement of that 3'ear. As the 
occurrence of the war caused the suspension of all Univer- 
sity exercises then, and thus they were prevented from re- 
ceiving the degree of A. B., to which thej^ were entitled, the 
Board and Faculty deemed it only just to these young men 
to grant them the privilege of a public admission to gradua- 
tion on occasion of the annual commencement prospectively 
to be held at the close of this session of 1865-'66. This 
was accordingly granted them, and they or, as many of 
them as survived the war and presented themselves on that 
occasion, were regularly graduated and recognized as Bach- 
elors of Arts, and received the usual diploma conferring 
that degree. This class consisted of 28, and their names 
are recorded on pages 39 and 40 of the Historical Catalogue. 
As there had been no public ceremonies at the resumption 
of the suspended exercises in October, 1865, it was thought 



458 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

best to have thi-s point of usual respect for ourselves, and 
for the public, carried into proper execution at the close of 
the session in the ordinary form observed on such occasions. 
\Ve inaugurated our exercises by a public assembly at the 
University chapel, attended by a large and enthusiastic 
audience, beginning with the usual commencement sermon 
delivered by Bishop Wilmer on Sabbath previous, and clos- 
ing on the 28th of July with the inaugural ceremonies of 
induction of the Faculty into office, on which occasion an 
address was delivered to the Faculty by Hon. J. W. Clapp 
on behalf of the Board of Trustees, and a response by the 
chancellor as the representative of the Faculty. 

Every element of prosperity seemed to be now in exist- 
ence to cheer us, and the first session was brought to a very 
successful close, and the many friends of the institution re- 
garded the prospects before it as heralding forth a bright 
career oi* usefulness and honor to the State and to the 
w^orld. 

Among the additions to the Faculty which, from time to 
time, were made by the Trustees, the University was highly 
favored in securing the services in their several depart- 
ments of three incumbents, who gave great attraction ta 
the University. I have already referred to Hon. L. Q. C. 
Lamar. I have known this gentleman since the year 1849, 
or '50, when he ^vas on a visit to his father-in-law. President 
Longstreet, of the University. He was then in the vigor 
of his young manhood, a member of the legal profession, 
with high and honorable prospects of success before him in 
his future. As he was, at that time, without employment, 
and seemed favorably impressed with the idea of being con- 
nected in some University work, he accepted an invitation 
to serve in the Department of Mathematics as Adjunct Pro- 
fessor. This position he held until 1852. He subsequently 
filled the chair of Metaphysics and Ethics; but as he was 
called to that professorship in 1860, he, of course, vacated 



Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar. ^59 

it in the foUo^Ying year, 1861, as the rniversity closed its 
doors in consequence of the Avar. He entered the army as 
an officer high in command, fought through it, and returned 
in safety In 18G6 he vvas again madi professor m the 
same department, but as the professorship of Governmental 
Science and Law was vacant by the death of the first incum- 
bent Wm F Stearns, he was very soon transferred to that 
department, end there he found himself breathing an atmos- 
phere most congenial to his taste and his great abihties. 
He occupied this chair with great attractiveness to the 
youn- men of the country until the year 1870. My own 
impression is that Mr. Lamar had, from his earher man^ 
hood kept steadily in view the career of statesmanship, i 
remember a casual conversation I held with him durmg his 
first years in Oxford, in which, as we spoke of his futui;e 
he remarked that he would not be surprised if he should 
end his life work in the ministry of the Methodist church ! 
My reply was, "No, sir; you will surely pass your life m 
the world of politics ! " I beheved just that, and so it has 
proved to be. He has talents and abilities to fill any posi- 
tion to which he has been called, and I should judge that 
he has at last attained that lofty seat on the supreme bench 
of the nation which will be most admirably adapted to the 
broadest field of usefulness, and which is well fitted to 
-ratify his loftiest aspirations. Long may he hold it ! 
"^ In the year 1867, when we had been at work resuscitating 
the University about two years, I received a communication 
from Dr L. C. Garland, who had been connected for many 
years with the University of Alabama as Professor, and 
afterwards as President, in which he stated the fact that he 
was disposed to get once more into a position of usefulness 
in the sphere of instruction, and if there should be a va- 
cancy in his favorite Professorship of Annlytical Physics 
and Astronomy in the University of Mississippi, he would 
be willing to fill it. I immediately saw that while there wa& 



460 John N. AVaddel, D. D., LL. D. 

not techtiically a vacancy, one sucli as Dr. Garland had a 
preference for could easily be found. Knowing liim, as I 
did, only by reputation, I yet knew bim to be qualified to 
fill any place in any Faculty of Arts, and the mere fact of 
his becoming one of us in this institution, I felt would add 
immensely to the reputation of the University. The Fede- 
ral troops had visited Tuskaloosa on one of their destructive 
raids, and burned the splendid buildings and destroyed the 
magnificent libraries and apparatus of all kinds of the 
State University. This was a fearful disaster to the State, 
but if by that misfortune, we at Oxford had the opportu- 
nity of securing the services of Landon C. Garland, it was 
certainly an illustration of the dealings of Providence, 
"whereby He brings great good oftentimes out of great evil. 
I called on Professor Shoup and stated to him that as he 
had more heavy work on his hands than he should be bur- 
dened with, I came to propose to him that he should consent 
to give up that part of his duties that related to " Physics 
and Astronomy," and retain Applied Mathematics. To this 
proposition he readily gave his consent, and agreed to add 
to this some light professional subjects of instruction. The 
Trustees being in session at that very time, in Jackson, I 
wrote immediately to them and suggested that Dr. Gar- 
land's services could be obtained, and showed them how 
imj^ortani; it was to secure him; and he was at once unani- 
mously elected. On receipt of this intelligence I wrote to 
Dr. Garland, and urged his removal without any delay be- 
yond that "which was necessary, as we needed him on the 
ground very pressingly. He was with us very soon, and 
we welcomed him with joyful cordiality. To show the wds- 
dom of this choice, I need only mention his name in Missis- 
sippi, Alabama, and in Tennessee, in each of which States 
he has contributed as largely to the promotion of the 
higher education as any man living, or dead, has done in 
this century. Dr. G. has every qualification of a great and 



Other Members of the Faculty. 461 

successful teaclier. He had learning, and the happy faculty 
of communicating instruction. He had dignity of bearing, 
and 3'et cordiality of social intercourse. He had the art of 
commanding the profound respect of the student, and yet 
the graceful urbanity of manner that encourages and invites 
their entire confidence. All these noble qualities had their 
crowning glory in that highest of all attainments, the spirit 
of a devout Christian, Vvhich marked his career in public 
and in private life. The Methodist church demonstrated 
their practical wisdom in placing him at the head of their 
greatest literary institution in this South land — Vanderbilt 
University, at Nashville, Tenn. The Doctor continued to 
serve the University until 1875, in the chair to which he had 
been appointed in 1867, and also during the year '75 gave 
his time to the class in Chemistry and Natural History, fill- 
ing a temporary vacancy in that department. 

One other name occurs to me as worthy of special record, 
being that of one who, during my term of service, was asso- 
ciated with me in the Faculty — that is Eugene "W. Hilgard, 
Ph. D., Professor of Chemistry and Natural History. He 
had served the State as its Geologist for some years, but in 
1868 he was called to the chair of Chemistry and Natural 
History, which he filled with eminent success and advantage 
to the University until he was called to the University of 
Michigan at Ann Arbor. There he remained only a short 
time, when he resigned the position to take a professorship 
in the University of California, which he, at last accounts, 
was still occupying. Br. Hilgard, though not born in Ger- 
many, was of German extract, his parents being natives 
of Germany. 

I was fully aware from other sources of his attainments 
as a scientist, yet to those I add the testimony of Dr. F. A. 
P. Barnard, the eminent President of Columbia College, in 
the city of New York, who knew and appreciated him 
highly. He said to me once, "He is one of the finest chem- 



462 John N. Waddell, D. D., LL. D. 

ists in America." Dr. H. was entirely devoted to his pecu- 
liar subjects, and yet a more genial and cordial friend and 
associate I have never known. He was a Catholic in his re- 
ligious views, but he was never an obtrusive bigot. He had 
no objections to the individual tenets of any of the Protes- 
tant churches, provided they were not ol:>trusively presented 
to him, l)ut kept on the even tenor of his way, allowiiig to 
all others the same privilege. 

It was not long after the close of hostilities, and the re- 
turn of peace in '05, that the Provisional government, under 
Governor Sharkey, was brought to a close by an order issued 
by himself on July 1st, that an election should be held on 
August 7th of delegates to a convention, those being quali- 
fied to vote who were legal voters previous to the war, and 
who had taken "the oath of amnesty," which was required 
" by the proclamation of the President of May 29." This 
convention met on the 1-lth of August, and abolished 
slavery and repealed the ordinance of secession. On the 2d 
of October an election of Governor and other State officers, 
together with Congressmen, was held, w4iich resulted in the 
choice of Hon. B. G. Humphreys as Governor. 

The provision of the law directs that the Governor of the 
State for the time being shall be President of the Board 
of Trustees ex officio ; and with him presiding, and a Board 
of Colleagues thoroughly in sympathy with Southern inter- 
ests, we had comparatively a comfortable state of things. 
Still it was not long before we were beginning to be dis- 
turbed by the ominous mutterings of a coming storm in our 
political sky. The Congress of the United States had 
passed Acts of Reconstruction, and among other particu- 
lars in their lemslation, " constituted the States of Missis- 
sijDpi and Arkansas, the [Fourth Military District, under 
command of Major-General Ord. For some reason, not re- 
corded. General Ord was directed to turn over his command 
to General Gillem. Another convention was assembled in 



Many Changes. 463 

January, 186^, under this military government, wliicli sat 
for more than four mouths in Jackson, having adopted a 
new constitution. On June 4th, General Irwin McDowell 
took the command of the military district, and he api^ointed 
Major-General Adelbert Ames, Provisional Governor, super- 
seding Governor B. G. Humphreys, the choice of the peo- 
ple. The constitution which had been ado^oted at the late 
convention was submitted to a vote of the qualified electors 
of the State, and was rejected by a majority of 7,G39 votes. 
This occurred in 1868, during the military government. 
By an act of Congress of Ai^ril 10, 1869, President Grant 
was authorized to submit this rejected constitution again to 
a vote of the people. This election occurred in November, 
1869, and those clauses of the constitution that were so ob- 
jectionable on account of disfranchisement, and disqualify- 
ing those from holding office who had taken part against 
the Union in the civil war, being allowed to be decided for 
or against retention, " the constitution was ratified almost 
unanimously, and the objectionable clauses were rejected." 
The next step was that " at the same time James L. Alcorn, 
a Republican, was elected Governor of Mississippi over 
Louis Dent, a Conservative, by a vote of 76,186 against 
38,097. This was followed by a session of the Legislature 
in January, 1870, which ratified the Fourteenth and Fif- 
teenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United 
States relative to slavery: the State was readmitted into 
the Union by an act of Congress passed on February 23d, 
and Governor Alcorn was inaugurated on March 10th ; the 
military government ceased, and the civil authorities as- 
sumed control." 



CHAPTEK XLYI. 

TJndes a New Regime. — Some Signs of Diminished Patronage. — 
Judge Hudson's LEa?TER and the Answer to It. — Governor Al- 
corn. — New Board Appointed — A Sketch. — Small Attendance. 

THIS year, 1870, was characterized by eyents of much 
interest and importance, both public and private, as the 
history of the University was closely connected with the 
joolitical condition of the State. We found our second 
year's roll of students in attendance to have increased to 
246, and, as above stated, we were able to send out our 
first graduating class and to bring the session to its end in 
June, 1867, with a full order of creditable exercises, honorary 
and regular. The graduates, though few in number (only 
four), reflected great credit uj)on the institution in their 
performances on the rostrum, and in their subsequent his- 
tory. They were J. C. Bush, of Mobile, Ala., T. G. Bush, 
now a prominent citizen of Anniston, Ala., G. E. Critz, 
Starkville, Miss., and J. S. Moore, D. D., now a distin- 
guished divine and pastor of the Presbyterian Church at 
Sherman, Texas. I may add that the next year, 1868, showed 
a slight diminution of our list, though the number of gradu- 
ates in the Literary Department was much increased, being 
24 ; while the Law Class of the preceding session had sho^Yn 
but one graduate (Hon. Charles Bowen Howry), it also had 
risen to the number of twelve in 1868 who were graduated, 
the whole number of law students having been 24 during 
the session. From this time onward until the year 1870- 
'71 there may be observed a slight decrease in our at- 
tendance every year, reaching the minimum 120 in the Arts 

464 



GovERxor. Alcorn and the University. 465 

Department, and in the Law Class there were but 15. I use 
this year as my basis of calculation, as I regard it as the 
year in which our numbers sank lowest, and from which 
we began to rally again. The cause of this temporary de- 
cline in patronage is not far to seek, and will suggest itself 
to any one who will recall the fact that the University is a 
State institution, and that the State was now in the hands 
of alien controllers, with some exceptions. The natural 
consequence of this state of the case was that the appre- 
hensions of the real citizens of the State were aroused to 
what they believed to be the danger of action of the pow- 
ers to force upon the University the reception of colored 
students. To do ample justice to Governor Alcorn, I take 
the opportunity to state, from what I deemed rehable evi- 
dence, that he had no such intention, and that if all the 
colored men, women, and children in the State should have 
petitioned him to sanction such a policy, he would have j)er- 
sistently refused. I was not with him in his political senti- 
ments, but quite the contrary, I am sure. But I beheve, 
and have said openly, that it was a great event in the Provi- 
dence of God, for the preservation of the University, that 
he was placed "at the helm of the ship of state" just at 
that juncture in its history. 1st, He was a Southern man. 
2d, He had owned large numbers of negroes, and hence 
knew their nature and character as a race. 3d, He had 
more influence with the party then in power than any other 
man of the North or South. 4th, He was a friend of the 
South, and knew full well the imminent peril that would 
rest upon the true interests of the State by favoring this 
false policy. I will now record something of the inside 
history of this condition of popular sentiment in the first 
place, and then I will give facts to show grounds for the 
above expressed opinion in regard to Governor Alcorn. 

It was during the time when the dissatisfaction of the 
people of Mississij)pi, under Radical rule in 1870, was grow- 
30 



466 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

ing more iutense and bitter daily, that, just previous to the 
fall opening of the session, in September, I received a most 
respectful communication from a distinguished citizen of 
the State, the Hon. E. S. Hudson, of Yazoo Cit}', in which, 
after some remarks introductory, by way of preface, he 
makes the following inquiry : 

" Will the Faculty of the University, as now composed, 
receive or reject an applicant for admission as a student on 
account of color or race ? " He stated that he knew me, 
and was under no necessity of asking my views, but he de- 
sired an explicit statement of the views of my colleagues. 
He added that the people of the State were greatly excited 
upon the subject, and he was particularly desirous that I 
should furnish such a communication in reply as would 
answer the purpose of extensive publication in the j^ublic 
journals of the State. 

As Judge Hudson was a warm friend and patron of the 
TJniversit}'-, I immediately called a meeting of the Faculty, 
and the only Trustee to whom I could convey a summons, 
and laid the letter before them for discussion and action. 
The result was that "sa hich will be found in a communica- 
tion prepared by myself in words following, to-wit : 

"University of Mississippi, September ISth, 1870. 
•*'HoN. R S. Hudson: 

" Dear Sir : Your letter of inquiry of 27th inst. is re- 
<;eived, and as jowo object is clearly and candidly expressed, 
you are entitled to a reply just as clear and candid. 

"In answer to your general question, ' Will the Faculty, 
as now composed, receive or reject an applicant for admis- 
sion as a student on account of color or race ? ' we proceed 
to say that this Faculty w'ould, most assin-edly, in deciding 
the question of admission, be governed by the consideration 
of the color and race of the applicant. Furthermore, and 
the more cleaiij^ to meet the point wdiich we know yon had 
in view in the inquiry, we state that should the opplicant 



I 



The Color Line. 467 

belong to the negro race, we shall, without hesitation, reject 
him. AVe presume that this answer will be satisfactory to 
you, as well as to the ^'many others,'' who, "with you, 
"await the answer you solicit," and that "this response" 
will not be found " marked by any evasion, or uncertainty." 
Here then we might close our reply, but inasmuch as many 
will have access to our correspondence, who may not be so 
readily satisfied, we shall briefly, but with as much clear- 
ness as possible, present the considerations which, in our 
judgment, imperiously demand of us the above indicated 
course. 

" 1. The University of Mississipjoi was founded originally, 
find has been conducted exclusively, in all its past history, 
J or the education of the xohite race. The Congress of the 
United States, which endowed the institution ; the State of 
Mississippi, w4iich, by its Legislature, accex:)ted the endow- 
ment and chartered and fostered the University; the suc- 
cessive Boards of Trustees w^hich have, for a quarter of a 
•century past, directed its affairs ; the Faculties which have 
presided over it, and governed it; and lastly, the citizens of 
the State who have patronized it ; never, for a moment, con- 
ceived it possible or proper that a negro should be admitted 
to its classes, graduated with its honors, or presented with 
its diplomas. 

"2. The Faculty are not invested with the law-making 
power, and imtil the Board of Trustees, who jDOSsess this 
prerogative, legislate a change in the relations of the races, 
the University will continue to be, what it always has been, 
an institution exclusively for the education of the white race. 

"3. We have received not the slightest intimation that 
such change is contemplated by the Board of Trustees, but, 
on the contrary, so far as we know, it is their mnid and pur- 
pose to maintain the institution unchanged in this respect. 

"4. We add, what is due to ourselves, as well as to the 
patrons of the institution, that should such a change be 
made in the internal regulations of the University as to re- 



468 John L. TCaddel, D. D. LL. D. 

quire the Faculty to receive and admit r.pplicaiits of the 
negro race to the classes, the members of the present 
Faculty would instantly tender the resignation of the offices 
they now hold, and surrender the trust to the authorities of 
the University, as that of which they could not longer con- 
scientiously consent to be the fiduciaries. 

*'The above is the 'authoritative and reliable response 
of the Faculty, and the status of each member thereof on 
this question.' It is subscribed by each member of the 
Faculty, with the exception of Professor Lyon, who, being 
absent in a distant part of the country, could not, of course, 
affix his signature to it at this time. It is due to that gen- 
tleman to add, that no one entertains the above sentiments 
more cordially than he does, and no member of the Faculty 
would more promptly subscribe this document. 

"Since this question was regarded as one of sufficient 
importance to be propounded to the Faculty, our only regret 
in connection with the matter is, that it has been delayed 
until a period immediately before the opening of the session 
of the institution ; since, if our status on this subject were 
doubtful, it would have been better for the interests in- 
volved that this doubt should have been removed at such 
time as would have enabled j)arents and guardians to decide 
for themselves whether or not they -could intrcGt their sons 
and wards to an institution which is, and has ever been, de- 
signed exclusively for the white race. 
" Very respectfully, 

" John N. Waddel, 
" Chancellor, ifi behalf of the Faculty.'^ 

Before I dismiss this subject, I will state that the above 
communication was forwarded to Judge Hudson, and by 
him sent to the public journals of the State, and thus was 
largely circulated and extensively read by the people of 
Mississippi, and sufficed to place the University in its ap- 
propriate position on this subject, then occupying a large 



Alcorn University. 469 

space in the public mind I had occasion soon after this to 
visit Jackson, attending a meeting of the Board of Trustees, 
and I remember a conversation I held with Judge Sharkey, 
in reference to this matter, in which he voluntarily and veiy 
emphatically gave it as his opinion that by that letter to 
Judge Hudson "the University was saved." I have no 
doubt of the fact that, if an opposite course had been 
adopted, the usefulness of the institution would have been 
destroyed for years, and the condition of the State, demor- 
alized as it was, would have been far worse in eveiy respect. 
As the matter terminated, we had no trouble on the subject 
at all, and the Governor wisely settled the point by recom- 
mending to the Legislature to appropriate $50,000 for the 
establishment of a University for the higher education of 
the colored population, which was done : and, in honor of 
the Governor, it was chartered as "Alcorn University." 

The war had, by its disastrous progress, swept away nearly 
all the colleges in the State, and among them Oakland Col- 
lege; and after an effort to resuscitate it, made by its 
friends, it succumbed, and the Presbyterians, who had con- 
trol of the property, its buildings, and grounds, sold out to 
the new colored institution, entirely, for $30,000; and the Al- 
corn University was located there, in Claiborne comity, seventy 
miles southwest of Jackson. At the same time, at the sug- 
gestion of the Governor, the Legislature passed an act to 
grant the like amount to the University of Mississippi for 
its support. This constituted the source from which the 
Faculty drew their salaries ; but as it was issued from the 
treasury in the form of State warrants, the intrinsic value 
in currency varied from $G0 to $75 in every $100. Still 
it is due the authorities that I should say the salaries w^ere 
reckoned to the Faculty in full payment of the real amount 
promised: that is to say, that if we received a warrant of 
the State of one hundred dollars denomination, it was held 
as paying us onh^ seventy-five, and in this way we lost no- 
thing. I considered one of the points of deep interest to our 



470 John N. \Vaddel, D. T>., LL. D. 

prosiDerity as an institution of learning to be tlie organiza- 
tion of the Board of Trustees on the proper basis. Accord- 
ingly, I addressed the Governor soon after his inauguration, 
a communication suggesting to him as a wise arrangement 
that the twelve Trustees who were to constitute the Board 
(not including the Governor, who should be ex officio by 
law the presiding officer), should be always nominated by 
the Governor himself to the State Senate, in three classes 
of four each, whose term of service should expire at regular 
intervals after appointment. My reason for this suggestion 
was that the appointment of Trustees had been made by 
the body of the two houses of the Legislature in convention 
assembled, and this was attended with a great deal of con- 
fusion, and I was afraid that unworthy parties might be ap- 
pointed. It would be safer a great deal, I thought, to place 
the nomination in the power of the Governor, and the con- 
firmation in that of the Senate, I do not claim that this 
suggestion of mine was the moving infiuence with His Ex- 
cellency, inducing him to adopt this method. At all events, 
this plan was adopted, and the result was that a Board of 
Trustees was appointed, consisting in part of liepublicans, 
and in part of Southern men, which proved to be satisfactory. 
I close this chapter by the statement that our attendance 
of students in the session 1870-'71 ran down to 120. In 
my communication in answer to Judge Hudson's letter of 
inquiry, I alluded to the fact that it was too late for our de- 
claration to reach the people of the State in time to affect, in 
an}" way, the patronage. It was generally apprehended 
throughout the State that, to use the expression common in 
those days, "the Universit}" was going to be radicalized," 
and it required the entire session to pass, and the most pru- 
dent and devoted zeal and vigilance on the part of the Fac- 
ulty, to bring the institution into the confidence of the citi- 
zens of Mississippi, which it had enjoyed to so remarkable a 
degree previously. But we triumphed, by the blessing of 
a kind Providence, in due time. 



Rev. Jas. A. Lyon. 471 

During the year 1870, at a meeting of the Trustees, Bev. 
Jas. A. Lyon, D. D., Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in 
Columbus, Miss., was elected to fill the chair of Metaphysics, 
which had been vacated by the resignation of General Shoup, 
in 1869. Dr. Lyon entered at once upon the discharge of the 
duties of this chair, and continued in the faithful work of aix 
instructor, and in the additional labors of a minister of tha 
g'ospel in various neighboring churches, some time in Oxford, 
and for some time in Grenada, until his resignation in 1881, 
in consequence of the loss of his health. He did not long 
siu'vive after his resignation, but lingered on in great feeble- 
ness until ho closed his life peacefully, on May 15th, 1882, 
surrounded by his devoted family. Dr. Lyon was a man of 
no ordinary intellectual ability, and a lofty sense of Christian 
honor. His quickness of sensibility made him intolerant of 
the violations of the courtesies and civilities of gentlemanly 
social life. He was a high-toned Christian gentleman him- 
self, a warm and devoted friend. I have known him to 
carry his devotion to a friend so far as to really endanger 
himself. The duties of his chosen clirar were his special 
study, and his favorite pursuit, outsido the ministry. My 
last intercourse with him was through the mail, in July, '81, 
and consisted of a card, in which, after speaking of his health 
somewhat hopefully, he closes by remarking that "liest — - 
rest of body, mind and soul, is essential." From this it may 
be inferred that he had led a most laborious life, and that 
his sufferings were all traceable to this fact. Dr. Lyon had 
a call to various positions, and among them I can recall the 
presidency of the Stewart College (afterwards the South- 
western University) at Clarksville, Tennessee. This oc- 
curred in 1869, but he declined in consideration of the ear- 
nest devotion of his church in Columbus, of which he was 
then pastor. He was also called, after he had been in the 
University for some years, to a professorship in the Danville 
Theological Seminary, which he also declined. 



CHAPTEE XLYII. 

JIetubn of Confidence in the Univeksity on the Paut of the Peo- 
ple OF the State. — Gov. Alcorn. — Respect Shown the Board. — ■ 
Two Unpleasant Incidents. — The Dormitory System. — Change 
OF The Uni\-ersity System. 

IT may have been very objectionable to many of tlie party 
in power, that this correspondence between the Faculty 
and Judge Hudson seemed to place the Universit}^ on such 
lofty and independent ground in regard to the race pro- 
blem. But, judging by the evidences which we received on 
all hands, and from rJl quarters, the true citizens of the 
State and the tbpI patrons of the University, not only within 
the limits of Mississippi, but from other surrounding States, 
were prompt and cordial in dismissing their apprehensions 
on the subject of mixed patronage ; since the catalogue of 
the session of 1871-'72 presented as in attendance, 260 stu- 
dents, an increase of more than 100 per cent, as compared 
with tho number in attendance during the preceding ses- 
sion; and in 1872-73 there were present 302. Indeed, in 
all the elements of true prosperity, we were gratified to find 
tho institution regaining lost prestige, and doing noble 
work in training the youth of the land for their future po- 
sitions in the State and coimtry. I sincerely believe that 
the policy of Governor Alcorn was directed to the advance- 
ment of the best interests of the University at all times, and 
by his influence with the radical party ho restrained what- 
ever tendency might have cropped out to curtail its useful- 
ness. The members of the Board, as has been stated, con- 
sisted of an equal number of both parties; and as they were 
bound to be present on the grounds of the University at 
the annual meeting in June, dimng the exercises of Com- 

A72 



Partisan Feeling. 473 

mencement, they were always received with respect by Fac- 
ulty and students, and the dehberations of the Board were 
always harmonious. I remember two occasions, however, 
when there seemed to bo appearances of a threatened storm 
on the part of the radical members of the Board. One of 
these incidents occurred in 18G9, on the day appropriated 
to the So2:)homore Prize Declamation, duiing Commencement. 
One of the declaimers delivered a selected piece, which was 
a violent denunciation of the Congress of the United States, 
as it then existed, composed of Republicans almost exclu- 
sively. One of the Trustees, who had been appointed re- 
cently, by Ames, then Provisional Governor, was a Repub- 
lican, and (at that time the only one of that party) took 
great offence that this speech should have been allowed tj 
be spoken at all. 

It was freely discussed by the Board, and Professor Shoup 
whose duty it was to supervise the speeches of the students, 
and to decide what should be spoken and what should be 
excluded, ^^ as harshly criticised. This professor, in an inter- 
view with me, declared, that while he might have been un- 
intentionally somewhat careless in his duty of critical censor, 
at the same time, if he should fall under censure by the 
Board, he should tender his resignation at once. This he 
did, but he was allowed by the Board to withdraw it, with 
the understanding that such speeches were not to be j^re- 
sented again. The professor declined to withdraw his resig- 
nation, and left the University. 

A similar occurrence took place, in which I myself was 
innocently under censure, on another Commencement occa- 
sion, in 1872, somewhat in this wise : A student, who had 
submitted his speech to my criticism in the usual course 
(not a selected speech, but original,) after my having al- 
lowed it to pass, inserted a sentence in the budy of the j^ro- 
duction, reflecting, in very disrespectful language, upon the 
party in power. On this occasion, there probably were 



474 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

present on the rostrum as many as half a dozen RejDubhcan 
trustees who heard the remark, and were very indignant. 
I told them that, while I was responsible for all the speeches 
on such occasions, and was careful to require every impro- 
per word on any subject to be erased and omitted, I cer- 
tainly could not account for the insertion of any such pass- 
age and its delivery, as I had no recollection of it when it 
was passing under my review. I did not deprecate their 
displeasure, but submitted the case to their decision, as I 
totall}' disapproved of the conduct of the speaker. They 
passed it over ; but I learned subsequently that the youth 
had omitted it in the speech as submitted to me, and in- 
serted it ill the speech delivered. These things are men- 
tioned to illustrate the state of feeling then existing in the 
State. The party in power naturally felt jealous of any dis- 
respect shown them by the community. The students were 
all young, and they felt restive under the " yoke of bondage," 
as they considered the government by Northern men. The 
Faculty were earnestly desirous of peaceful exercise of their 
authority over the students ; and I can testify to the fact 
that we not only ourselves met the Republican trustees on 
all occasions with respect and courtesy, but it was our ear- 
nest and constant injunction upon all the students, in pub- ' 
lie and in private, in the chaj^el, where we daily assembled 
•with the entire student body, and in our private social in- 
tercourse with them, that they should conduct themselves 
with special propriety and resj^ectful demeanor towards 
these gentlemen, in whose hands the very existence of the 
University was placed, and that this great interest de- 
manded the sacrifice of all private animosity, and the re- 
straint of every demonstration of ill-will to those who were 
in authority by legal appointment. It cannot be denied 
that these were troublous times for the institution, so much 
so that I felt, at first, almost decided to consider a call to an. 
institution in a distant State. But matters were managed,. 



Disorder Among Students. 475 

"Under divine guidance, successfully, and we entertained the 
trustees hospitably Avhen they attended at Commencement, 
and kept our institution from falling into disrepute with 
our own Southern fellow-citizens, during the whole of those 
trying 3'ears. There was, howevei*, a tendency of a differ- 
ent nature growing up among our students as the time 
rolled on. The students who constituted the body in at- 
tendance nearest to the days of the re-organization, in 1865, 
we have described as being disposed to make the wisest and 
most profitable use of their time and advantages ; but they 
completed their course in due time, and by natural and ne- 
cessary consequence many of them rose, step by step, to 
positions of great usefulness and distinction in the church 
and in the State. In due time a younger class of students 
entered the University, and while, like all of our boys at that 
age (from sixteen to twenty) in our institutions of learning, 
there is a tendency to more or less of disorder, there was 
no such state of things as exists in many of the colleges 
and universities of the country, and such as is recorded by 
Professor La Borde, of the South Carolina College, in his 
history of that college under its earher presiding officers, 
when there was scarcely a year in the history of that insti- 
tution during some part of which there did not occur a re- 
bellion of the students ; yet we had more or less disorder. 
I think I may safely announce it as my opinion that if or- 
derly and desirable deportment, with quiet and home-like 
manners, are expected of students in our colleges and uni- 
versities, the families of the locality furnish a far more suc- 
cessful and desirable place for boarding them than the sys- 
tem of dormitories, which was in use at Oxford. This de- 
cision of mine is the result of an experience at two colleges 
over ^vhich it was my lot to preside, where the family sys- 
tem prevailed, contrasted with my eighteen years of connec- 
tion with the University of Mississippi, where were three 
large dormitories. 



47G John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

This subject need not be further discussed, as it has al- 
ready been discussed in my historical sketch of La Grange 
College in a former chapter of this memoir. Let me merely 
add on the subject of discipline, in its practical working, 
that the phrase, *' putting students on their honor,'" requires 
some impartial consideration before it should be discarded 
as a principle of college government. Carried to the ex- 
treme of utter neglect of all enforcement of law, it will prove 
disastrous ; but to lay down, at the outset, the axiom that 
students are not worthy of the confidence of those entrusted 
with authority, and to have if understood that rigid stern- 
ness is to characterize the intercourse between the two 
bodies who are to be associated in the joint enterprise of 
imparting and receiving instruction, tends infallibly to that 
old antagonism which once held sway between pupil and 
teacher, and which will give the teacher, in the mind of the 
pupil, the role of a mere police detective. Two things I 
have discovered to work favorably with bodies of students : 
1. Let them be impressed at the outset of their course and 
association with the Faculty that they are esteemed as gen- 
tlemen, Christian gentlemen, and that they shall be so con- 
sidered and treated until they, hj unworthy bearing, unbe- 
coming such a character, prove that they are undeserving of 
esteem ; that the motto of institution must bo understood to 
be, " Liberty without license, and authority without despot- 
ism." 2. That it is much easier to prevent a scheme of 
mischief than to remedy it after it has been developed. To 
particularize under this head would require minute details 
of all sorts of incidents that have occurred during my career 
as a presiding officer. Let it suffice that I simply indicate 
the cost of success to be that vigilance which may always 
note the state of public sentiment in such student commu- 
nity, and an ordinary degree of sagacity will often enable 
the presiding officer to interfere so quietly as to arrest a 
scheme of this kind without making public the manner in 
which it was defeated. 



System of Administration. 477 

The cares of the external and internal management of the 
University were very onerous during the laller part of my 
second term of service in connection with it, in the capacity 
of presidhig officer. The system of its administration had 
been, from the beginning, merely the ordinary close college 
method of four regular classes — Freshman, Sophomore, Ju- 
nior, and Senior — to which we had been compelled to sub- 
join w^hat was called an Irregular class, the student being 
not obliged to take all the studies prescribed in the curricu- 
lum, and not expected to take a degree. This class, not 
being fully occupied with their comparatively meagre ex- 
tent of study, gave the Facult}' no little trouble in control. 
In addition to this, we felt that it was absolutely necessary 
to re-organize our system so as to make the institution such 
as would entitle it truly to the name of a University, and to 
keep it abreast of the world of science and letters, or be 
left behind in this advancing age. 

Accordingly, in my annual report to the Board of Trus- 
tees, bearing daie June 17, 18G3, I find the following pas- 
sage, which explains itself : 

"VII. Tour of Visitation to Other Institidions. Incon- 
sequence of the late war, it is obvious that all the Southern 
institutions have fallen behind in the march of improve- 
ment in many resj^ects. Impressed with this fact, I re- 
spectfulh' suggest to the Board the propriety of commis- 
sioning me as your agent to visit as many of the colleges 
and universities, both North and South, as can be reached 
within the ensuing vacation, with a view to obtain, by per- 
sonal visits to their faculties, all the information that may 
be made valuable to our University. The-subjects embraced 
in such an investigation would be modes of instruction, sys- 
tems of discipline, with all minute details and plans for the 
more efficient management and accomplishment of univer- 
sity education. !Many facts of great importance and value 
might be elicited by personal conference, which could n(.t 



478 John N. Waddel, D. B., LL. D. 

be acquired bj correspondence. The amount necessary to 
be a^Dpropriated to the objects of such an agency cannot 
be ascertained with exactness, but such a sum as may be 
deemed adequate should be appropriated, a strict record of 
expenses kept, and only so much expended as might be 
needed, and all the rest accounted for." 

In accordance with this recommendation the following 
action was taken by the Board at their meeting on June 17, 
18G9 : 

"On motion of Mr. West, it was Ilesolvcd, That the 
Chancellor of the University be, and he is hereby author- 
ized, to visit as many of the colleges and universities, both 
North and South, as can be reached during the ensuing va- 
cation, with a view to obtain, by personal visits to their facul- 
ties, all the information that may be made valuable to our 
University.' 

Again, on occasion of an adjourned meeting of the Board 
in September, I presented my report of the tour of observa- 
tion thus authorized, and the Board received it, accompa- 
nied by the following action : 

" On motion of Mr. West, liesolved, That the report of 
J. N. Waddel, Chancellor, of September 22d, 1869, is able, 
instructive, and comprehensive, and furnishes evidence of an 
efficient and faithful discharge of the responsible duties of 
his mission. 

" Hesolved, That the sum of three hundred dollars be paid 
by the Treasurer to the Chancellor, to cover his expenses 
while in the service of the University during vacation." 

In explanation of the last resolution, I add that I ren- 
dered, on my return, a strict account of every item of the 
actual expense incurred, and I very well remember that my 
account did not much exceed two hundred dollars. But, as 
I was informed by a member of the Board, they felt that 
the service rendered entitled me to the sum named in the 
resolution adopted. 

I had submitted the substance of my report to the Fac- 



Change in Curriculum. 479 

ulty, and it liad been fully discussed previous to its being 
submitted to the Board. I shall not record the entire re- 
port, but content myself with a mere epitome of its contents. 

After stating that I had yisited the University of Georgia, 
Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technolog}', Am- 
herst College, Yale College, University of the City of Nevvr 
York, Princeton College, Brown University, and the Univer- 
sity of Michigan, and that I had failed to visit Columbia 
College, in New Y^ork, on account of the absence of Dr. Bar- 
nard in Europe, and was prevented, by circumstances, from 
visiting Cornell University, I presented for the consideration 
of the Board what was then the plan of the University of 
Michigan, and the plan adopted at Harvard University, and 
some others. The first consists of three general depart- 
ments : 1, The Department of Science, Literature, and the 
Arts; 2, The Department of Law; 3, The Department of 
Medicine and Surgery. But included under the first head 
are no less than six diuerent courses of study ; 1, The Class- 
ical course ; 2, The Latin and Scientific ; 3, The Scientific ; 
4, The course of Civil Engineering ; 5, The course in Mining 
Engineering ; G, The course in Mechanical Engineering. 
Besides all these courses, they jDrovide amply for a regular 
course in Analytical Chemistry. 

A student, in order to attain the degree of B. A., must 
take all the studies of No. 1. In No. 2 Greek is omitted 
and Modern Languages substituted. In No. 3 both Greek 
and Latin are omitted, and Science and INIodern Languages 
pursued. Should any student desire a selection of studies, 
he will be allowed to pursue his choice in any of these de- 
partments for such a length of time as he may choose, but 
he cannot attain a degree. 

The other j)lan is one which, to some extent, accomplishes 
the combination of the university, or elective scheme, with 
the close college curriculum. This consists in making the 
close system obligatory upon the student who is a candidate 
for the degree of B. A. only to a certain i^oint in the course. 



480 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

This is attained at the close of one of the classes in somB 
institutions, and at the close of a different class in others. 
"Without giving particulars, it will be sufficient to state that 
this is a fair description of the second plan, where the com- 
pulsory and elective systems are combined. 

The only remaining scheme for consideration is the en- 
tirely open system in operation at the University of Vir- 
ginia. 

There was some variance in the views and preferences of 
the members of the Faculty when I read my report to 
them in full form. The majority favored the plan of the 
University of Michigan, and it was finally adopted in ihe 
University of Mississipi^i, with such modifications as were 
deemed best adapted to the circumstances. 

It may be stated that very great changes have taken j)lace 
in the general plans of various institutions of learning, 
North and South, since the time to which I here refer. In 
regard to these changes, some of them have proved to be 
beneficial, and of others there is a diversity of opinion among 
educators. In some of the very best of our schools of the 
hicher learning- co-education has been introduced, with fine 
effect in certain respects, such as the enlargement of 
woman's mental culture and intellectual vigor. Eut some 
have shown a reluctance to its introduction, and such seem 
to cling to the ancien7ie regime with great tenacity, wherein 
the sexes were trained separately with sedulous care. This 
change has occurred in the institution at Oxford, and seems 
not to have been attended with any injurious results to the 
cause of education. There may be, however, some ground 
for the opinion w^hich I have seen expressed, that this asso- 
ciation of the sexes in so close quarters " impaired that deli- 
cacy which was woman's adornment." Still, such an im- 
provement as this had not been inaugurated at the time of 
my connection with the University, and does not fall pro- 
perly within the limits which I have prescribed to myself as 
the historian of its progress. 



CHAPTEE XLYIII. 

BiTRDEN OF Eesponsibilitt. — Chuech AND State Instittjtions. — ATn« 

TUDEOFTHE UnIYEKSITY ToWAKD CHRISTIANITY. — FkEE TuITION.^ 

WoKK Bone by its Graduates. — Historical Address. — Degree 
OF LL. D. Conferred by the University of Georgia. 

J HAD felt for some time a pressure of tlie responsibility 
tliat is inseparable from the position wliicli I occupied 
that was becoming heavier every year. The question of 
duty was that which I had to decide, and it was to be set- 
tled in my own mind, not simply upon the balancing pro- 
cess, of the personal ease, or difficulty of the office to my- 
self, for my convictions had long been settled that this is, or 
should be, always a secondary consideration. The main 
point to be considered certainly is in what position are men 
found capable of the greatest usefulness to those for whom 
they are laboring. If, in spheres different from that one 
occupied by them, they are convinced they can exert an in- 
fluence more salutary to the promotion of truth and virtue, 
and the advancement of the true interests in morals and 
culture of those around them, then they are justified in 
making the exchange. But, unless this can be made mani- 
fest to them under an enlightened conscience, it is a be- 
trayal of solemn trust to desert a post of honorable useful- 
ness merely because to hold to it, and discharge its obhga- 
tions successfully, involves personal discomfort and mental 
anxiety, the sacrifice of bodily ease and enjoyment. Still 
there is conceivable such a state of things as a combination 
of one's own freedom from trouble, and, at the same time, a 
field of greater usefulness in some other department of human 
effort than that one occupied at the time. It is true that I 
31 481 



482 John N. Waddel, D. T>., LL. D. 

had reached the point in my administration of the affairs of 
the Universii-y which seemed to be favorable to its future 
career. I felt that it might be compared to a ship which, 
after having been tossed by winds and waves upon a bois- 
terous sea, was now sailing in tranquil waters, and that the 
same divine Providence which had been at the helm was at 
hand still to guide and control all the elements, and make 
the institution a blessing to the church and the world, as 
He had done in its past history. But two things still pre- 
sent od themselves to my mind in this discussion : 

1st. Could I not engage in some other employment that 
would be attended by as much benefit, and result in as 
great usefulness to the church and to the world as the work 
I am now doing in the University, and avoid at the same 
time the wear and tear of body and mind that accompa- 
nies it. 

2d. Is it best for me, personally, that I have so close a 
connection in my work with the political affairs of the State 
as seems necessary by the fact of the control exercised over 
the University by the State ? 

My meditation on this subject did not disturb my mind to 
such a degree as to bring me to the conclusion that I ought 
to leave the institution. Still I felt more and more that a 
release from the burdensome cares and anxieties of office 
would relieve me greatly. But I was not prepared to see 
the path of duty with sufficient clearness to take any deci- 
sive step, either in one or the other direction, contenting 
myself with making no mention publicly of my feelings and 
views, but moving on in the ordinary course of daily duty. 

AVith regard to the relation existing between church and 
state education, I have had not a little experience in the 
actual working of these two agencies. The State has the 
means whereby the very best arrangements can be made to 
conduct the business of education in the most extensive and 
enlarged system, so that, if the controlling powers of the 



Relations Between Church and University. 483 

State be imbued with the wisest and best principles that 
should constitute the great subject of education for the 
youth of the country, it possesses the power to perform the 
work successfully. But in our republic, the great political 
principle of a separation of church and state is understood 
by our people to extend to the exclusion of reUgion as far as 
possible from our public school system ; and, as our people 
are divided into many different denominations of Christian 
churches, there seems to be a jealousy aroused by an ap- 
parent favor shown to one or another of these sects, when a 
representative is put in office in the Faculty from one 
rather than from another. In order to do away with this 
state of things, some institutions prefer excluding any 
form of religious teaching whatever. The churches, on the 
other hand, have felt bound, in self-defence, to establish 
schools and colleges of their own. They have, all over the 
land, good institutions of every church, w^here their children 
are trained to accept the doctrines and preferences of their 
fathers, and religious instruction in form is amply provided 
for in the curriculum, as a part of the studies called for in 
every case. But then the churches labor under one of two 
disadvantages : either they have not the pecuniary resources 
at command with which to establish such institutions, or the 
private members of these churches fail to come up with 
their contributions. There is a lamentable lack of Vesprit 
du corps^ among the churches of the South at least. 

The University of Mississippi has not been chargeable 
with any disposition whatever to exclude Christianity from 
its system of instruction, since the effort attempted by some 
to exclude the " evidences of Christianity," and the policy 
of " excluding all ministers from office in the Faculty," 
were defeated, both of them in the origin of the institution. 
There is a remarkable fact in its history which ought to be 
recorded to its credit. It has been the alma mater of a 
large number of our best and most useful ministers of the 



484 John N. Waddel, D. D , LL. D. 

gospel, and little or no interference has ever been experi- 
enced by any minister who may, from time to time, have 
held office in its corps of instructors, in his ministerial du- 
ties of preaching to his own people. 

There are other statements to be made on this subject 
equally honorable to the Universit}^ and which, even in the 
earlier days of its comparatively contracted pecuniary re- 
sources, were made public in its printed code of laws under 
the heading of provisions for 

" Feee Students. 

" 1. Students preparing for the ministry of any denomi- 
nation of Christians will be admitted into each class, with- 
out tuition fee, on application to the Faculty; but, when- 
ever the student shall abandon such intention, or shall act 
in a manner inconsistent therewith, the fees so dispensed 
with shall be considered due. 

"2. Any young man desirous of entering the University, 
but unable to pay for tuition, will be admitted by the 
Faculty without fee, on standing the regular examination, 
and producing certificates of good moral character, and of his 
inability to pay ; such certificates to be signed by some resi- 
dent minister, or the principal of some academy in the 
neighborhood from which he comes. 

"3. In both cases, strict secrecy wall be observed, and 
and there will be no difference in the treatment of different 
classes of students. 

" 4. A student from each senatorial district in the State 
will be admitted upon the recommendation of the Boards 
of Police, tuition free. The admission shall be termed a 
scholarship, and shall be the reward of merit." 

I repeat that this provision for free tuition was made at a 
time w^hen the University was cramped for the means of 
maintaining the full responsibilities of her position as a 
school of the higher learning, and for fully meeting the ex- 



Alumni of the University. 485 

pectations of the people of the State. But one step after 
another was gradually taken by the authorities, until ulti- 
mately tuition was declared free to all students, not only of 
the State of Mississippi, but of the world. 

Moreover, although a State institution, under all its trials 
and difficulties, it has so far enjoyed the confidence of the 
various churches as to have furnished the preliminary train- 
ing in their literary and scientific course for seventy-three 
ministers of the gospel (one of whom is a bishop of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, Dr. Galloway), within the first 
forty 3'ears of its existence and operation. 

Nor has this institution failed in giving to the world 
others from its training w^ho have filled honorably the 
various spheres of usefulness in almost every department of 
public effort. The Alumni of the University have filled the 
highest positions in the judiciary of the State, and in tlie 
legislative halls, and in all the professions. " Last, though 
by no means least," her graduates are recorded among the 
incumbents who successively have filled the place of Trus- 
tees, and they have occupied the chairs of instruction in al- 
most every department of her estabhshed course. Among 
these we find one Chancellor, four full Professors, one 
Acting Professor, seven Adjunct Professors, and thirty 
tutors; in all forty-three, who were once receiving instruc- 
tion, and who subsequently were called to occupy the seats 
whence they so acceptably and honorably imparted it to 
many others. Long may the University keep its record 
bright, and be a blessing in the future, as it has been in the 
past, to both State and church ! I feel that I should say 
thus much in justice to this State institution, whose policy 
has been known to me from its origin. 

Yet, returning to myself, I simply add that, while I had 
never been trammeled by its authorities in any ministerial 
work, I felt, as I grew older, that I ought to be more closely 
identified with my own church. I continued, however, to 



486 John N. AVaddell, D. D. LL. D. 

work, amid much anxiety and under some discouragements 
on account of disorders among our students, and with some 
apprehensions from dissatisfied pohticians, until the year 
1873-74. 

The Commencement occurring in June, 1873, was the 
quarter century of the organization of the University, On 
that occasion (by request of the Board of Trustees the 
year previous) I delivered a historical discourse to a large 
audience, on Wednesday, June 25th, on which occasion the 
following action was taken by the Board of Trustees: 

" University of Mississippi, 
Oxford, 1873. 

" "Wednesday, June 2jth, being the twenty-fifth anniver- 
sary of the organization of this institution, a historical dis- 
course was delivered, by invitation of the Board of Trustees, 
by the Chancellor, Eev. John N. "Waddel, D. D., after which 
the Board unanimously adopted the following resolutions : 

''Resolved, That Chancellor Waddel is entitled to the 
thanks of every friend of the University for the splendid 
oration delivered by him on yesterday. That his able and 
conclusive vindication of the University against the assaults 
of all its enemies insj^ires the Board of Trustees with re- 
newed hope of making this noble institution the j)ride and 
glory of Mississippians, and their posterity forever. 

''JResolved, That the Chancellor be resj^ectfull}^ requested 
to j)lace his oration at our disposal for publication, and that 
five hundred copies of the same be printed. 

''Jiesolved, That there now being new material enough 
for one volume of the history of the University, our be- 
loved Chancellor be earnestly requested to prepare the 
same for publication at as early a day as he conveniently can." 

I was, of course, gratified by the foregoing reception my 
discourse met with at the hands of the Board, but my time 



i 



The Degree of LL. D. Conferred 487 

was so fully occupied by daily duties which pressed upon 
me, that I found no time to write the history. 

It was at the annual Commencement of this year, in the 
month of August, that I received from my alma mater ^ the 
University of Georgia, at Athens, the unsolicited and unex- 
pected honor of Doctor of Laws (LL. D.). This I, of 
course, regarded as peculiarly complimentary, from the fact 
that, from the origin of the University in 1801 to the year 
1873 — just seven tj^-two years of its existence — I was tha 
seventh instance of its having been conferred. The namea 
opposite to which these initial letters stand recorded on the 
Centennial Catalogue are the following : 

Hon. Wm. H. Crawford, in 1824. 

Hon. George McDuitie, in 1843. 

Hon. John McPherson Berrien, in 1850. 

Hon. Eugenius A. Nisbet, in 1868. 

Dr. L. a. Dugas, in 1869. 

Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, in 1870. 

Bev. J. N. Waddel, D. D., in 1873. 



CHAPTEE XLIX. 

General Assembly of 1868. — Elected Modekatob. — Proceedings.-— 
Educational Convention. — Director or Church University. — 
Eesults of Two Meetings.— Meeting of The General Assem- 
bly in 1864. — Elected Secretary of Education. — Kesignation. 

THE reader of these pages must bear in mind that my 
public Hfe has been of a two-fold character. I have 
been exercising the somewhat analogous functions of a 
teacher and a minister of the gospel. It has been found 
necessary, therefore, that this narrative should, from time 
to time, be interrupted in its record of my life, as it pro- 
gressed along one of these lines of work, in order to bring 
the two together at some synchronous point. I find myself 
just now at one of those periods, during the year 1874, when, 
after having been released from official connection with the 
General Assembly as stated clerk, by resignation, my labors 
•were confined to the University, over which I had been called 
to preside in 1865, save that I continued to preach at Ox- 
ford and at other churches as I found opportunity. If this, 
then, be a matter of interest, I will recur to the transaction 
in which I was interested, and in some of which I was an 
actor during the interval of nine busy years, from 1865 to 
1874. 

I had the apx^ointment of Commissioner to the General 
Assembly that met in Baltimore in May, 1868, and I found 
it a most agreeable recreation to withdraw for a brief space 
from the heavy and exacting pressure of daily labor, to en- 
joy once more the society of my esteemed and beloved 
brethren, and to take again some part in the deliberations of 

the church. 

488 



The General Assembly of 1868. 489 

I left home in Oxford on Monday, May 18, 1868, and 
Teached Baltimore in due time, where I met many of the 
brethren who had been my associates during the troublous 
war times, and whom I had not seen since. I was unex- 
pectedly made moderator of the Assembly; and I may be 
p)ermitted to remark that, while I was not aware of making 
any very signal blunders in parliamentary law and order, I 
attribute my moderate success to the fact, under Divine 
favor, that our church south had then been in her separate 
existence for so short a period as not to have accumulated 
business out of which might possibly have arisen complica- 
tions of interpretation by ecclesiastical lawyers. The Assem- 
bly was visited on this occasion by a delegation of ministers 
from the Synod of Kentucky, the chairman of which was 
Rev. R. S. Breck, D. D., and my impression is now that 
Bev. Samuel E. '\Vilson, D. D., was his associate. Dr. Breck, 
on the second day of the meeting, "delivered an address 
conveying the assurance of the kind feeling, sympathy and 
confidence " of the Synod of Kentuck}-, to which I, as mode- 
rator, responded. The Synod extended an invitation to our 
body to hold their next meeting in Louisville, Ky. But the 
Assembly declined to accept it, as it was "judged inexpe- 
dient, under present circumstances." Yet a commissioner, 
with an alternate, was " appointed to convey to the Synod 
of Kentucky the salutations of the Assembly." Rev. J. A. 
Lefevre was ai^pointed principal, and Rev. E. W. Bedinger 
his alternate. 

After the usual routine of business was finished, the As- 
sembly adjourned on Wednesday, May 27th, after a pleasant 
session of just six days, to meet on the third Thursday in 
May, 1869, in Mobile, Alabama. The number of commis- 
sioners present on that occasion was ninety-five, of which 
number there were fifty ministers and forty-five ruling 
elders. The total of ministers then belonging to the South- 
ern church was 786; and the membership numbered 76,949. 



490 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

In 1890, twenty-two years later, tliere were 1,179 ministers^ 
and of commmiicants 168,791 were in connection with our 
Southern church, making an increase of 393 ministers, and 
91,849 communicants. We had in 1868, licentiates, 51; 
candidates, 92. In 1890 we had 66 licentiates and 336 can- 
didates. Some who were present in Baltimore, in active 
work, have closed their labors on earth, and have entered 
into their everlasting rest. Of the eighteen Avho have left 
us, we number such consecrated and godly-minded workers 
as John Leighton Wilson and Dr. T. V. Moore, with many 
as dear to the survivors, but not so prominent in the church. 
My own eye rests upon two names of peculiar interest to my 
memory; one is the aged minister of Christ, Rev. David 
Humphreys, of South Carolina, my first teacher, to whom I 
have already referred in the first chapter of this memoir. 
The other is my nephew. Prof. Wm. H. Waddel, of the 
University of Georgia, an elder-commissioner from Pres- 
bytery of Augusta, one of the most accomplished scholars of 
his time, who died in 1878, just ten years later, of heart 
affection. 

I notice just here, that at the Commencement exercises of 
the University of Mississippi, there was graduated the sec- 
ond class after the close of the war, consisting of twenty-four, 
among whom I sadly recall my eldest son, who became a 
minister, and after a consecrated service of about seven 
years, passed away, in 1885. 

I attended the meeting of the Assembly in 1869, in Mo- 
bile, the record of which is found in the printed minutes of 
that body, Vol. II. My connection with the public history 
of the church is not on record at all, except as a minister 
enrolled as S. S. from year to year, at Oxford, Miss., until 
the year 1874. Previous to that year, however, at a meeting 
of the General Assembly, held in Louisville, Ky., after the 
union of the Synod of Kentucky had been perfected with the 
Southern Assembly in Mobile, an educational convention was 



A Presbyterian University. 491 

called, to meet in Hunts ville, Ala., in 1871; and the Presby- 
teries were notified to emjDower their commissioners to act 
as members of that convention. Of that convention I was 
empowered to act as a member, in behalf of the Presbytery 
of Chickasaw. The concej)tion of holding this convention 
originated with Eev. James A. Lyon, D. D., and the idea at 
the basis of the convention was to discuss and, if possible, 
adopt the plan of establishing one grand University for the 
whole church South, to be under the care of the Presbyte- 
rian people. The convention was composed of a number of 
our ablest ministers and ruling elders, and the whole sub- 
ject was most thoroughly canvassed. The scheme did not 
prove acceptable to some of our brethren, upon the ground 
that they were amply provided in their region of the country 
with the means of education already, and while wishing 
Godspeed to those who favored this concert of action, they 
declined participation in the enterprise. Not regarding this 
as a defeat, the matter held fast hold upon their minds as 
something not to be surrendered, but to be developed in full 
efficiency, even though on a more limited scale. "Cast 
down," they were, but by no means "destined." Of that 
convention I was honored by being made chairman, and a 
public address was adopted by the convention and scattered 
broadcast throughout the southwest, suggesting that con- 
tiguous Synods unite, and thus supply, by co-operation, what 
no single one could furnish alone. This suggestion was in- 
dustriously and successfully pressed and elaborated by Rev. 
Dr. Shearer, then President of Stewart College, at Clarks- 
ville, Tenn. " A meeting of commissioners from five Synods 
was held in May, 1873, and a plan was then adopted, and 
in the autumn of the same year, commissioners were sent 
from the Synods of Alabama, Arkansas, Memphis, Missis- 
sippi and Nashville (and Texas afterwards joiiaed the asso- 
ciation), who adopted a plan of union, and all the six Synods 
agreed upon it ; and each one of them apjDointed two direc- 



492 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

tors, to meet in January, 1874, and take charge of the enter- 
prise." 

Among these, I was chosen a director in 1873, while still 
Chancellor of the University, without my knowledge, and, 
accordingly, with the other directors, I attended a meeting 
in Memphis in January, 1874. 

There were many applications before the board at this 
meeting, for the location of the university proposed to be 
organized; and Eev. Dr. Breck also was present, urging us 
to unite with Kentucky in establishing a university in some 
central locality ; but, after a patient hearing of many speak- 
ers, the board adjourned, to hold another meeting in May, 
1874, at which time they j)i'oposed to receive propositions 
for the location from all who were willing to make them, and 
to transact any other matters of business that might come 
before them, to be settled with a view to the organization of 
the university at the earliest period consistent with the true 
interests involved. This second meeting was held at the 
time appointed, in Memphis, and, after a careful examina- 
tion of all the proposals from various communities, " the 
board selected Clarksville as the location, and Stewart Col- 
lege, with its funds and appurtenances, as the nucleus of 
future operations. The former Faculty of Stewart College 
was continued provisionally, and the institution was kept in 
operation on the same scale as heretofore, until such time 
as the way might be open for the formal organization of the 
university projDer. I attended this meeting, also, and took 
part in all the deliberations. Among other important sub- 
jects acted upon by the board at this meeting, the election of 
a chancellor was proposed, and the unanimous voice of the 
the members called to this office of trust the Rev. B. M. Pal- 
mer, B. D., LL. D., thus manifesting that their minds were 
insjDired with ho^De and expectation of success in the erec- 
tion of a university on the most elevated scale. 

It was during the month of May, 1874, that at tho regu- 



Committee of Education. 493 

lar meeting of the General Assembly in Columbus, Miss., 
the annual report of the Executive Committee of Educa- 
tion was presented by the Standing Committee of the 
Assembly in the following language : 

*'The Secretary (Dr. E. T. Baird) states that, since the 
organization of the committee, there has been no year of its. 
history which has been attended with so many circum- 
stances to cause anxiety and to produce painful mortifica- 
tion. The year commenced with a deficiency' of $2,900." 
The chairman then continues to report several facts besides 
this deficiency, the second of which is that " a number of 
students have left the seminary or college, and resorted 
to secular business to support themselves." Then, after (in 
the language of Dr. Baird) stating that "the committee, 
through circulars issued by the secretary, had exhausted 
its ability to urge this matter on the attention of the 
churches," the chairman of the standing committee adds 
the fourth discouraging fact to be, that, "after all these 
urgent appeals, there is a deficiency of $4,000." 

The recommendations of the standing committee are 
that, "in view of the whole case," the Assembly should 
adopt one or the other of the two following courses : 

" (1), Abolish the Committee of Education altogether, and 
throw the support of the candidates upon the Presbyteries ; 
or (2), separate the causes of Education and Pubhcation, 
elect an additional secretary, and locate him at some central 
point in the West." 

They gave the highest testimonial in the report to Dr. 
Baird, the secretary, as an "efficient and suitable man for 
the work of secretary, and expressed the gratification it 
would afford them " to see his great energies, experience 
and wisdom fully engaged in this pre-eminently important 
work of beneficiary education." 

After the Assembly had selected Memphis as the location 
of the committee, instead of aboHshing it, "the following 
was ado^Dted": 



494 John N. Waddel, D. T>., LL. D. 

"Jlesolved, That tlie following persons be elected the 
Executive Committee of Education for the ensuing year; 
Eev. John N. Waddel, D. D., Secretary; James Elder, 
Treasurer ; J. O. Stedmen, D. D., Eev. W. E. Boggs, Eev. 
E. M. Eichardson, Rev. A. Shotwell, M. P. Jarnagin, B. M. 
Estes, J. B. Griffing, W. W. Armstrong, and A. C. Ewell." 

This all occurred during the last session of my terra of 
service as Chancellor of the University of Mississippi. I 
did not, indeed, seek the office, but I was not entirely taken 
by surprise, as some such intimations had fallen upon my 
ear, and had to some extent been passing through my mind. 
The subject of resigning my office, as I have already stated, 
had begun to occupy my thoughts, and the question of duty 
had led me to the throne of grace and wisdom for divine 
guidance in its proper solution. But, up to the period of 
June 26th, 1874, I had been able to reach no decision that 
seemed satisfactory to my judgment on this important mat- 
ter. The annual Commencement exercises were finished on 
Thursday, 25th, yet the Board of Trustees had not con- 
cluded all the business, but were to hold their last meeting 
and close up their work on Friday, 26th. I awoke very early 
on the morning of that day, and realizing the relief which was 
consequent upon the successful winding up of another toil- 
some year's work, my heart went up in grateful thanksgiv- 
ing to the Giver of all good, and in prayer for divine guid- 
ance for the future. In what I am about to record, I am 
a ware that I may incur the charge of infatuation, on the part 
of those who do not hold the same views upon the doctrine 
of Divine Providence that I hold; but I shall be found to be 
entirely in congenial accord with every one who believes in 
the consolatory doctrine of answered prayer. I had a per- 
ception just then, such as I had felt on only two previous 
occasions in my life, of a ray of Hght entering my mind, as 
I made the decision to tender my resignation; after which 
I found aK my hesitancy and uncertainty at an end. 



Kesignatiox of the CifAN<;ELLoi{r:irip. 495 

There was no fcuch feeling as excitement, but a calm and 
peaceful acquiescence in what I felt convinced was the will 
of God in regard to my duty. It will sorve to heighten the 
interest of this case that I state the fact that at the Chan- 
cellor's annual reception on that occasion, during Com- 
mencement week, the Trustees were present, and among them 
those wh(j l^elongcd t(j the Republican party. As I sincerely 
desired to have them feel at home, and enjoy the evening, I 
made it a point tliat ought to Ijo oljserved, to have those 
gentlemen introducted to the ladies who were present. I, 
at the same time, took the precaution to ascertain the per- 
sonal sentiment of the ladies in this regard, and ascertain 
^vhether it would be agreeable to them to be presented in 
this way, and this I did witlnrnt the slightest intimation to 
the Trustees themselves. Every lady whom I approached 
declined very quietly, but very promptly. These gentlemen, 
(I was informed by a party j)resent in company with them), 
resented this neglect, and laid the entire blame to my 
charge, considering it a tacit purpose on my part, and a 
l^ractical indignity done to themselves. It was just one of 
those unavoidaljle occurrences one is called to encounter 
sometimes in society, which could not be explained without 
making matters worse ; so I said nothing to any one about 
it. But as I heard of the fact as stated above, I confess 
that, while under other circumstances their dissatisfaction 
would not have influenced my action at all, it had the effect 
of simply confirming my decision already reached, to tender 
my resignation. This I did immediately on the assendjling 
of the Board at their office, after Ijreakfast. My written 
resignation was very hriei, only c<jnveying to the board the 
fact in words enough to answer the puqxjse, without the 
assignment of any reason for my course. 

My resignation was placed in the hands of a special 
friend of mine (one of the Trustees), and hardly ten minutes 
liad elapsed when I was summ*jned to appear before them 



496 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

to explain. My reasons were demanded not in any un- 
friendly manner at all, but with evident disappointment, and 
apparent, and (I believe on the part of the majority) real 
regret and surprise. Protestations of the warmest friend- 
ship, and most perfect confidence, were made by members 
of the Board, and they were manifestly all of them unwilling- 
to accept my resignation. I made a speech to them in 
which I offered two considerations as my justification for 
the course pursued: 1, The heavy pressure of responsibility 
resting upon me in the multiplicity of details of duty in 
which I had and (from the nature of the case) could have 
little or no alleviation ; 2, The fact that I had been devoting 
most of my working days to the service of the world at 
large, and only a few of my years to the service of the 
church; that I lacked but eight years now of the limit of 
human life assigned in God's appointment, and I felt that 
those eight years, and whatever additional years I might 
have, ought to be spent in doing work for my church. The 
result was that they resolved to adjourn for one month, and 
refused, in the moantime, to accept my resignation, with the 
hope that I would reconsider the subject, and withdraw it. 
I may as well dispose of this part of my history by recording 
that, at the appointed time to which they had adjourned, 
they re-assembled, and finding me still resolute in my pur- 
pose, they accepted my resignation, and proceeded to elect 
to the vacated office, Lieutenant-General Alexander P. Stew- 
art as my successor. 



CHAPTER L. 

Maturing My Views as to Accepting the Office op Secketaey of*' 
Education. —Advised Against It.— Formal Acceptance. — Sup- 
ply OF A Church. —A Difference. — Decision op the Question 
BY THE Assembly. — Epidemic op Yellow Fever. — Joined the 
Presbytery of Memphis. 

I HAD not decided even then to accept tlie Secretaryship 
of i^ducation. I, hcvever, felt that it was highly proba- 
ble that I should coine to that conclusion ultimately, as it^ 
appeared to me that it opened before me a field of abundant 
usefulness to the church, and that I should be freed from, 
those peculiar forms of responsibility inherent in college 
and university work, esj^eciaily w^iere the institution is the 
pro2Derty of the State. I assumed it, as the most natural 
state of things, that I should find congenial employment 
in laboring to build up the interests of the Southern 
church, sustained, as I should be, by my brethren who had 
called me to the position. It may be just as well for me to 
state that, in a correspondence held j^revious to my leaving- 
the University wtih one of my w^armest friends, and one of 
the most judicious advisers — a distinguished minister of our 
church — it was suggested to me that it might not j^rove ta 
be so favorable a change of occupation as it seemed to be. 
He gave as objectionable to any of these secretaryships, 
that they were, all of them, more or less the subjects of 
criticism and fault-finding from the churches and ministers, 
throughout the country, and that it w^ould be by no means, 
as free from trouble as I had imagined it to be. Yet, while 
I felt that he was actuated by the purest motives and the 
most sincere regard for me, I did not agree with him in his 
32 4:97 



498 John K Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

views ; but in August I visited Memphis, and, at a meeting 
of the newly-appointed Executive Committee of Education, 
I formally accepted the office of secretary, and removed in 
November to Memphis, rented a house, and at once entered 
upon the duties of the office wdth zeal and earnestness, 
relying upon the great Head of the church to guide, uphold 
and sustain me in all my efforts to do His work. 

Referring to the action of the Assembly at Columbus, 
Miss., in May previous, I found that the duties of the 
secretary were prescribed in language following, viz.: "It 
shall be the duty of the secretary, in addition to visiting 
the Presbyteries and Synods for the purpose of raising 
funds, to act as a medium, of communication between our 
candidates and the Presbyteries, for the purpose of secur- 
ing promj)t and remunerative employment for our candi- 
dates during their vacations." (See Minutes of General 
Assembly for 1874, page 515, paragraph 4, of Eeport of 
Standing Committee.) To this I endeavored to apply 
myself at once, visiting the four Synods of IMissouri on 
October 17th ; of Arkansas, on the 24th ; of Texas, on the 
4th of November ; and of Kentucky, on the 12th of Novem- 
ber, and making addresses before all of these bodies, I 
^ery soon found that the cause of beneficiary education 
■^vas among the most unpopular of all the four objects of 
church benevolence. As an illustration of this fact, I made 
an honest effort at the Assembly of May, 1875, that met in 
St. Louis, Mo., to prevail upon some of our most eloquent 
preachers to address the Synod of Missouri on the evening 
set ai)art by resolution of the Assembly for a general meet- 
ing to discuss the subject, and as I failed utterly to obtain 
the consent of all I approached to do that service, I had the 
matter re-considered, and no such meeting was held at all. 
Nor was any such meeting, for the benefit of that cause, 
ever held at any session of the General Assembly during my 
term of service as secretary. Year after year came up to 



Beneficiary Education Unpopular. 499 

the Assembly x^ropositions to do away with the Executive 
Committee of Education entirely, and to relegate the busi- 
ness of beneficiaiy training and support to the various 
Presbyteries. This continued as long as I was engaged in 
the service of the church, and at the meeting of the Assem- 
bly in Louisville, Ky., in 1879, which was the last time I 
ever attended as secretary, there was an effort made by 
dissatisfied parties to do away with this committee as a 
separate agency, and combine it with the Executive Com- 
mittee of Home Missions, under the secretary in charge of 
the latter. It was not presented before the Assembly, but 
I mention it to show the difficulties encountered by the 
Executive Committee of Education. Let me dismiss this 
subject by referring to the noble and exhaustive report, 
which was the work of a coiijuiittee consisting of Rev. Jos. 
B. Stratton, D. D., Eev. Stuart Robinson, D. D., and Ruling 
Elder John L. Marye, of Virginia, the object of which was, 
according to Overture No. 8, " to consider the propriety of 
abandoning the present scheme of education, and remand- 
ing this subject to the Presbyteries."" The Committee on 
Bills and Overtures, in reporting upon this overture, " re- 
commended that, as the overture contemplates a radical 
change in the policy of the church, a committee of two 
ministers and one elder be appointed to consider the subject 
maturely, and to collect the sense of the church by corres- 
pondence, and report to the next General Assembl3\" 

This report was written by Dr. J. B. Stratton, and j)re- 
sented to the Assembly at the meeting in Savannah, Ga., in 
1876. It was published by order of the Assembly, and wiU 
be found in the Appendix, in extenso, on pages 278-285, in- 
clusive. This report had the desired effect, as the Executive 
Committee is still the accredited agency of the Assembly in 
conducting the business of beneficiary education, but by no 
means interfering with the preferences of any Presbytery 
adopting an independent plan. But other difficulties came 



500 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

on after awhile, which were wholly unexpected by myself. 
I will refer to one of them as a matter of history, designing 
not the slightest reflection upon any of the parties concerned. 
Soon after my entrance upon the duties of Secretary of Edu- 
cation, I was invited to take charge, as Stated Supply, of a, 
little mission chapel, and to give to it only just that amount of 
time and attention which could be spared from the duties 
of the secretaryship. This was distinctly specified, and, 
with that understanding I agreed to serve the little chapel. 
But the majority of the committee looked at the matter with 
very different views, and disapproved of the arrangement. 
At first, I felt disposed to give u]) my engagement with the 
church, but, upon second thought, I decided to preach to 
them for the time. After a fair trial of the question of con- 
flict between the office and the church, finding that I could 
perform the two services without neglecting those belonging 
to the office, I continued to preach on Sabbath, Avhen not 
away on business of the Executive Committee. My breth" 
ren, all except one member of the committee, differed with 
me, upon the alleged ground that all my time and attention 
was due to the secretaryship. As it was a question that we 
could not decide among ourselves, I proposed to the com- 
mittee to leave it to be decided by the General Assembly, 
"which was to meet in 1876 in Savannah, and this projoosition 
was accex^ted by the committee. I, in the mean time, pro- 
posed to yield $1,000 of the salary fixed by the Executive 
Committee at my entrance upon the office. The Standing 
Committee on Education made their report through the 
chairman, Eev. E. G. Brank, D. D., to the effect that "they 
do not regard the engagement of the secretary as Stated 
SujDply of a church in the city of Memphis as incompatible 
with the duties of his office as secretary of the committee." 
They state, after discussing the subject in all its aspects, 
that the "committee (the Standing Committee on Edu- 
cation, then reporting) recommend that the action of the 



A Legacy. 501 

secretary in this matter be approved." This ended that 
matter. 

I state further, that one heavy burden which fell upon 
the committee was the deficit reported by Dr. Baird, in his 
account presented to the Assembly at Columbus, in 1874, 
which amounted to $4,000. Of course this resulted from 
the fact that the churches failed to furnish the means to 
pay the candidates the various sums which had been pledged 
to them by the former committee. We were thus encum- 
bered with a debt at the very outset of our administration, 
which proved a very heavy burden, with the limited resources 
at command and in prospect. Yet we braced ourselves to 
the work, and, although we had, in accordance with the 
practice of the former committees, to pledge to all candidates 
in seminary courses $200, and to college students $175, we 
managed, by Divine favor, to pay a percentage in reduction 
of the debt, and to send our special beneficiaries enough to 
carry them through their annual terms of study. We also 
met with an unexpected event, which proved a signal bless- 
ing in our struggles, and it came about in this way : 

Previous to the disruption of the church, in 1861, in con- 
sequence of the civil war, a devoted elder in Mississippi, 
Mr. Lusk, of Water Valley, had by his last will, bequeathed to 
the Boards of the old United Church certain liberal sums of 
money, and among them he gave a certain amount to the 
Board of Education, i^art of which amount had been paid 
by his executor to the Board before the war. That, of 
course, arrested all further payments, and the balance of 
the sum unpaid was claimed by the Northern Board. But, 
in a letter received from a brother (Rev. S. F. Tenny, of 
Texas), who was in Philadelpliia about the time of our pe- 
cuniary straits, I was informed by him that in an interview 
with the Secretary of the Board of Education of the North- 
ern church. Rev. William Speer, he was informed that a 
remnant of that legacy of Mr. Lusk was under the control 



502 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

of the Northern church, and he suggested that, upon the ap- 
pHcation of our Assembly to the Northern Assembly, in 
proper legal form, the whole of the balance now due would 
be turned over to us. The needed arrangements were con- 
summated as soon as possible, and Dr. Speer made the trans- 
fer of all the papers to myself, and we placed all in the hands 
of our church Board of Trustees. The Assembly of 1876 
instructed the Trustees " to turn over the legacy of the Lusk 
estate, amounting to something over $3,000, to the Treas- 
urer of Education, to collect and use for liquidating the ex- 
isting debt, or otherwise, as the exigencies of the case may 
require." 

This was accordingly done, and the subject may be dis- 
missed with the statement of the fact that this money was 
collected by the attorney, Hon. J. W. C.Watson, as soon as pos- 
sible, and paid over to the committee from time to time, and 
the debt against the committee was gradually reduced, until, 
at the end of my term of office in 1879, only a small rem- 
nant of it remained unliquidated, and ample provision was 
made to meet that by the balance still due from the Lusk 
estate. 

In closing the record of my connection with the Executive 
Committee of Education, I feel that, by the gracious mercy 
of God, the work accomplished was a success, considered in 
all respects, especially when considered in relation to the 
gloom that overshadowed its prospects at the time of its loca- 
tion in Memphis, in 1874. It must be borne in mind that the 
operations of the committse had been conducted under great 
pressure from financial troubles among the churches, and from 
an unfortunate want of favor to the general subject of benefi- 
ciary education, and from the debt on the committee, which 
had to be paid to former students, and at the same time 
from their own obligations to the students under their care. 
It is cause of great gratitude, when it is considered that 
these two objects were accomplished in less than live jear?^ 



Union Street Chapel. 503 

and that over four hundred joung students were helped 
into the gospel minis tr3\ To God alone be all the glory ! 
As stated in a foregoing page, while I was acting as Sec- 
retary of Education, I supplied a church with preaching- 
This had been, originally, a mission chapel, located on 
Union street, and came into existence during the pastorate 
of the popular and beloved Dr. T. D. Witherspoon, and was. 
established as a preaching station by the Second Presbyte- 
rian church of Memphis. The building was of the simplest 
architecture, and wholly destitute of all ornamentation. On 
the retirement of Dr. Witherspoon it seemed to have been 
deserted, at least for a time, but ultimately, (I do not know" 
at what time), it was resumed as a place of worship. At the 
time of my arrival in Memphis, in 1874, it was under the 
ministry of Eev. A. Shotwell. He removed shortly after that, 
to St. Louis, and the church was left vacant. I was asked,, 
just then, to fill the pulpit at such times as I could redeem 
from the actual duties of the secretaryship, which I did for 
more than eighteen months. I found that when I began ta 
j)reach there, the membership consisted of about thirty 
members. The location was not fortunate for increase, but 
the members, though few in numbers, were zealous, and 
were anxious to build up the little church, and during the 
year 1876 (my second year in Memphis), I preached my last 
sermon in that building, on the 8th of October. It was- 
abandoned in order that the members might take possession 
of a new and far more eligible house of worship, on the 
corner of Beale and Lauderdale streets. This house was 
built by the contributions of a few wealthy members of this 
congregation, assisted by smaller amounts from others, who 
contributed according to their ability. It was designed as 
a lecture and Sabbath-school room, and ample space was 
left on the large and beautiful lot for the erection of the 
building which was ultimately to stand as the more capa- 
cious house of y/orship. In the meantime, the first build- 



504 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

ing, newl}^ finished as above described, was to be used for 
bU purposes of a church, until the plan should be fully car- 
ried into effect, by the completion of the church proper. 
The new house of worship was solemnly dedicated to the 
service of the Triune God, by all the usual solemnities; 
ihe sermon, a masterly effort of spiritual and intellectual 
power, being preached by Kev. T. D. Witherspoon, D. D., 
from the text, Ephesians iv. 15, 16. The church has been 
tnown, thenceforward, as "the Lauderdale street church," 
and to it I ministered, as its Stated Supply, until July, 
1879. In September, 1878, the yellow fever was declared 
epidemic in Memphis, and a very general tendency to leave 
-the city was manifested by those citizens who were able to 
..get away. 

The membership of the Lauderdale street church, which 
was about thirty in number while they occupied the mission 
-chapel on Union street, had now increased to 107. But the 
•churches were all soon closed on account, not only of the 
»desertion of the congregations, but also by the considera- 
tion of sanatory prudence and caution against exposure on 
the part of the small number who were still in their homes. 
Having made up our minds to remain in our place of resi- 
dence, my wife and I, adopting the plan suggested and 
pursued by others, secured as a temporary place of resi- 
dence for sleeping, the country home of our friend, Mr. 
J. N. Ford, some two or three miles from the city, whence I 
could come in during the day to visit the members of the 
congregation, and go out again at evening. We kept up 
ihis course until we were driven, by force of circumstances, 
from one place of refuge to another in the neighborhood 
hj yellow-fever patients being brought to the very house we 
occupied. I visited the few cases in my congregation who 
remained and who were taken with the fever, buried two, 
and assisted in depositing the corpse of one in her burial 
xase. I preached in the Lauderdale street church twica 



Yellow Fever at Memphis. 505 

after tlie outbreak of the fever, but on the first of these oc- 
casions there were not more than thirty, and on the second 
only thirteen ; and so we closed up the church. It was un- 
occupied, as all the other churches were, during the pre- 
valence of this fearful epidemic. The aspect of the city 
was truly deplorable and depressing; deserted of the once 
busy and active inhabitants, its streets once resounding 
with the hum of business and the rattling and roaring 
tramp of horses and cars and drays, now silent and still as 
in the sohtude of death. Main street, tho great avenue of 
active life, and the chief mart of city commerce, one might 
traverse without encountering a famihar face, and such was 
the awful stillness that the foot-fall of a child might have 
been heard, as it smote the pavement. Finding no place 
near to the city for visiting and returning at night, I de- 
cided on going out to Germantown on a train that made a 
daily trip in and out, but just as we had used this mode of 
accomplishing the object in view, this train ceased to visit 
Memphis, and that train which bore us to Germantown 
proved to be the last in that direction for many weary days 
and weeks. After spending some days with Rev. R. R. Evans 
and his excellent wife, at Germantown, as I found that I 
was denied access to Memphis, I decided to leave on an ex- 
tended visitation of the churches and church courts, m be- 
half of the cause of Education. Mrs. Waddel and I left on 
the east-bound train for Georgia, and I visited nine of the 
churches of that State and Alabama, and attended the 
meetings of the Presbytery of Cherokee and the Synod of 
Georoia, at Atlanta. After the subsidence of the fever, and 
the I'esumption of railway travel in the direction of our 
home, we returned to Memphis and settled down once more 
to reoular work, about the middle of November, after an 
absence of nearly two months. We found the aspect of the 
city beginning to be brighter, but still there hung over it a 
Ungering gloom naturally consequent upon so terrible a 



506 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D 

scourge which had fallen upon the people. There "were 
many families which were mourning for those of their num- 
ber who had fallen victims to the plague, and few utterly 
exempt. 

The Lauderdale street church had suffered greatty by 
the epidemic in the number of deaths of its members, and 
when the church was opened again for worship on the 17th 
of November, it was solemn and sad indeed. We witnessed 
the comparatively thin congregation and counted fourteen 
of the membership whose seats would no more be filled on 
earth. The church, though greatly weakened by death and 
some removals, began shortly to recover its lost ground. I 
continued to supply the pulpit, and to discharge my duties 
as Secretary of Education during the remainder of the 
ecclesiastical year, having in the meantime removed my 
membership from the Presbytery of Chickasaw to that of 
Memphis, at a meeting held after the end of the fever, 
when the Presbytery had been, for the first time, permitted 
to gather together for regular business transactions. 



CHAPTER LI. 

Resume of Matters. — Corkespondence with Dr. Palmer in 1878-79. 
—Conflict of Feeling. —Attendance on Meetings of Direc- 
tory.— Ee-organization OF Stewart College and Election of 
the Faculty. 

I RECALL just here some facis that occurred during the 
last years of my connection with the University of Mis- 
sissippi. I had been appointed as director of the newly 
outhned, though not yet organized, university, which was 
imder the control of the six Synods of Alabama, Ai'kansas, 
Memphis, Mississippi, Nashville, and Texas. I had at- 
tended two of the meetings of this Board of Directors, and 
two very imi^ortant acts had been passed : First, in locating 
the institution, and second, in the choice of a Chancellor. 
The location was decided to be at Clarksville, Tenn., and 
Rev. Dr. Palmer was made Chancellor by a unanimous vote 
of the Directory at their meeting in Memphis, in May, 
1874. The Presbytery of New Orleans dechning to consent 
to a dissolution of the pastoral relation between Dr. Palmer 
and the First Presbyterian church of New Orleans, the 
Board proceeded to institute a provisional government for 
the institution at Clarksville, by appointing Rev. Dr. 
Shearer, who was at that time President of Stuart College 
(the nucleus of the proposed university), agent for the en- 
dowment, and electing Eev. Dr. Flinn, of New Orleans, 
Provisional President. This arrangement contluued for 
some years, and some j)rogress was made in raising funds 
under the earnest efforts of Dr. Shearer, which would no 
doubt have been more successful but for the temporary fail- 
ure of his health. I attended a meeting of the Board in 

507 



508 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

May, 1875, aud another meeting at a later period. But 
very little progress was made until 1879. In 1878-79, 
during some months, a correspondence began between Dr. 
Palmer and myself upon a projected scheme of his origina- 
tion, proposing to prevail upon me to become Chancellor of 
the new University at Clarksville. I found myself very de- 
cidedly opposed to even entertaining the proposition with 
any degree of allowance at all. My reasons for this disin- 
clination (to call it by no stronger name), it is not my pur- 
pose to state at all, as they are of such a nature as would 
draw into public notice matters of a character so personal 
as to involve relations too sacred to be disturbed. I will 
mention one principle upon which I have always endeavored 
to act ; it is this : I have never been willing to accept office 
at all of any kind, when assured that there were influential 
individuals among the voters opposed to me. Furthermore, 
while insisting upon unanimity of supporters in my dis- 
charge of any official duty, should existing opposition pro- 
ceed from parties of influence, my inclination always has 
been to abandon the situation, to avoid any dissatisfaction 
or hostilit}'. This state of feeling may proceed, I doubt 
not, in part at least, from sensitiveness or pride, or some 
similar trait of my inner constitution, but I mention it can- 
didly, simply to show the mode of action I chose to pursue 
from one single standpoint. Suffice it to say that I was 
never, in all my past history', the subject of such a conflict 
of feeling as to the decision of any question of duty, as I 
found myself in regard to this proposition of the chancel- 
lorship of the institution at Clarksville. In March, 1879, a 
meeting was called to take place at Clarksville of a Commit- 
tee on Organization, previously appointed by the Board of 
Directors. This committee consisted of Rev. Dr. Palmer, 
Dr. Shearer, and myself. The result of the deliberations of 
this committee was the maturing of a plan embracing every 
particular necessary to the actual working oi tlie proposed 



The Plan. 50^ 

university. This plan was to be reported to the Board of 
Directors at their annual meeting on the last dajs of May 
and the first of June. At the appointed day the Board 
met, all being present except Bev. ]\Ir. McNair, one of the 
Directors from Arkansas, making in all eleven members. 
The following is a full list c»f the Board as then constituted : 

Synod of Alaba))u(. — Bev. C. A, Stillmau, D. D., and 
Thos. A. Hamilton, Esq. 

iSynod of Arkdnsas. — Bev. E. McNair, D. D., and Bev. 
Thos B. Welch, D. D. 

S.ynod of 3Ie))rphis. — G. W. Macrae, Esq., and Bev. Jno.. 
N. Waddel, D. D. 

Synod of Mississippi. — Bev. B. M. Palmer, D. D., and 
Bev. Joseph Bardwell, D. D. 

Synod of Nasfwille. — D. N. Kennedy, Esq., and Bev. 
J. B. Shearer, D. D. 

Synod of 7\vas. — Bev. D. McGregor and Bev. AY. K. 
Marshall, D. D. 

Great interest was manifested by the Board in the busi- 
ness of this meeting, as there was to be an entire re organi- 
zation, not onl}'' of the sj'stem of instruction of the institu- 
tion, bat an election of a Faculty also was to be effected on 
this occasion. 

Previous to the present meeting of the Directory, the 
condition and character of the institution was simply that 
of the ordinary close college, which was in existence in 
most parts of the South. This is, perhaps, an appropriate 
place to fiu-uish a brief historical sketch of the college 
which formed the nucleus of the Southwestern Presbyterian 
University. "About the year 1850, the Masonic Fraternity 
of Tennessee founded in Clarksville the Masonic University 
of Tennessee, which school was conducted under the Presi- 
dency of AV. F. Hopkins, T. M. NeweM, W. A. Forbes, and 
Wm. M. Stewart successively until 1855. At this time certain 
parties in Clarksville, in the name of the Synod of Nash- 



510 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

ville, purchased the buildings, grounds, etc., and the school 
was thenceforth known under the name and title of 

Stewart College, 

which name was given in honor of President Wm. M. Stew- 
art, who had been, and continued to be, a most liberal 
patron and friend of the institution. The Faculty was re- 
organized under the Presidency of AVm. M. Stewart, and 
the school was conducted by a Board of Trustees appointed 
by the Sj^nod of Nashville. He served as President until 
1858, when Pev. P. B. McMullen, D. D., was elected to suc- 
ceed him. Professor Stewart in the meantime continuing 
his labors as Professor of Natural Sciences. The college 
was rapidly increasing in funds, appliances, and patronage, 
when the war came on and the school was of necessity closed 
During the war the libraries, cabinets and apparatus 
were lost, and the buildings were entirely dismantled in the 
fortunes of war. In 1868 and '70, the buildings were re- 
paired and re-furnished, at a cost of about eight thousand 
-dollars. After some delay, the Facnliy was re-organized, 
with Pev. J. B. Shearer, D. D., as President, assisted by a 
competent corps of professors. The school grew in favor 
and popularity more rapidly even than its best friends had 
expected. Negotiations, looking to concentration of effort 
over a larger field, were prosecuted diligently, until, in 1875, 
a new corporation succeeded to the j^roperty and funds of 
Stewart College, under the name and title of the 

Southwestern Presbyterian University. 

In Chapter XLIX. of this memoir, some reference to the 
great subject of enlarging the scheme of church education 
is made, and the facts of the location of the University 
and the adoption of Stewart College and its api3urteuances 
as the nucleus of operations for the University, are re- 
corded. 



DranNUTioN OF Patronage. 511 

We may also, with proiDriety, make a concise statement at 
this point of the course pursued by the College from 1874 
to 1879, as that will show both the basis of its operations 
and the details of its internal work until the College was 
merged into the University under the new corporation of 
the Board of Directors, consisting of twelve members, ap- 
jDointed by six Synods. 

The Board of Trustees of Stewart College, before the re- 
organization, who were appointed by the Synod of Nash- 
ville, consisted of twenty-eight members, the President of 
the College being ex-officio President of the Board. The 
Faculty consisted of a President, who instructed in Meta- 
p>hysics, Logic, and Rhetoric ; a Professor of Mathematics, a 
Professor of Latin, a Professor of Greek, a Professor of 
Modern Languages, and one of Natural Sciences. The 
number of students in the year 

1870-71, reached 101 1874-75, reached 151 

1871-72, " 124 1875-76, " 131 

1872-73, " 115 1876-77, " 105 

1873-74, '' 125 1877-78, " 97 

In 1878-79 it seems that no catalogue was j)ublished, but 
it is the impression that the number w^as not far from sev- 
enty. The diminution in the patronage I have never heard 
explained satisfactorily. But it is always the case that in- 
stitutions of learning are subjected to variations in the num- 
ber in attendance from time to time, and there is generally 
experienced subsequently some difficulty in recovering from 
such diminished numbers. This was the existing status of 
Stewart College, then, when the Board of Directors met at 
Clarksville on May 30, 1879, continuing in session for sev- 
eral days, and arranging all the preliminary work for the 
opening of the career of the new institution, under the 
name of the Southwestern Presbyterian University. It will 
be sufficient to say that, on this occasion, the curriculum 



512 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

was abolished. There was no longer to be recognized the 
Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior Classes. Instead 
of that, " they re-organized the school on the plan of co- 
ordinate schools and elective courses. There were at first 
established nine co-ordinate schools, covering the ground 
usually embraced in the departments of Literature, Art, and 
Science, and they were : I. The School of Ancient Lan- 
guages ; II. School of Mathematics ; III. School of Natural 
Sciences ; IV. School of Philosophy ; V. School of Modern 
Languages ; VI. School of English Literature and Rhetoric;. 
VII. School of Biblical Instruction; VIII. School of Com- 
mercial Science ; IX. School of History. In some of these 
schools there were three classes, called Junior, Middle, and 
Senior ; in others there were only two. Junior and Senior ; 
and in certain departments under these general schools only 
one class was formed, just in accordance with the time re- 
quired to complete the study of that department. 

It was, from the origin of the university system, contem- 
plated that professional schools should 1)6 added to the or- 
ganization at the earliest possible period. But the Board 
did not establish any professional school at their meeting in 
1879. Their action in this regard was postponed for sev- 
eral years, and will be recorded at the appropriate time. 

Having completed the work of organizing the institution 
in this way, provision was also made for an elementary de- 
partment of instruction in Latin, Greek, Higher Arithmetic, 
Algebra, and Geometry, this department to be under the 
same discipline and control as that of the other schools of 
the University. 

The second important item of business before the Direc- 
tory on this occasion was the election of a Faculty. It was 
at a late hour in the afternoon of Saturday, May 31, 1879, 
that the Board proceeded to this subject. On the nomina- 
tion of Dr. J. B. Shearer (who had been the President of 
Stewart CoUege from 1870), my name was placed before 



Elected Chancellor. 513^ 

them, and I was unanimously elected Chancellor of the 
Southwestern Presbyterian University. I accepted the 
office in a brief reply to a verbal communication of a com- 
mittee appointed to inform me of my election. Yet I was 
by no means in an exultant or cheerful frame of mind, but 
as I find in my diary recorded, " I was troubled wdth con- 
flicting feelings." 

On Monday, June 2d, the Board finished the election of a 
Faculty, which resulted as follows : 

Eev. C. E. Hemphill, A. M., Professor in the School of 
jLncient La)iguages. 

James Dinwiddie, A. M., Professor hi the School of 
Mathematics. 

John W. Caldwell, A. M., M. D., Steioart Professor in 
the School of Natural Sciences. 

S. J. CoFFMANN, Professor in the School of Modern Lan- 
guages. 

Eev. J. B. Shearer, D. D., Professor in the School of 
English Literature and Rhetoric. 

There was an assignment of the duties of the two remain- 
ing Professorships of Biblical Instruction and of Commer- 
cial Science to the members of the Faculty, as might seem 
best. The former chair was filled by Dr. Shearer, and the 
duties of the latter devolved upon Professor Dinwiddie in 
case a class should be formed. 

On Tuesday evening, at 7 p. m., a previously appointed 
memorial service was conducted in honor of the late Wm. 
M. Stewart, deceased, the benefactor and former President 
of the college. The exercises were interesting, and con- 
sisted of — 

1st. An appropriate essay, by Professor J. W. Caldwell, 
M. D. 

2d. " Eulogy on the Life and Labors of Professor Stew- 
art," by Professor J. B. Shearer, D. D. 



514 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

3. A splendid dedicatory discourse of the building, called 
" Stewart Cabinet Hall," delivered by Bev. B. M. Palmer, 
D. D., LL. D., in his own inimitable style. 

On Wednesday, June 4th, the exercises of the last Com- 
mencement of Stewart College were held, when seven stu- 
dents were graduated, and at the close it was announced by 
Dr. Shearer, who presided, that the exercises of the next 
session (the first of the new organization), would open for 
the reception of students on Monday, September 1st, 1879. 



1 



CHAPTER LIl. 

Attendanck on the Assembly, May 15, 1879. — Eetukn to Memphis 

AND PkEPAJRATIONS TO IvEMOYE. — RESIGNATION OF THE SeCKETARY- 

SHip AND Election of Successob, — Farewell Sermon. — ArrfvaIi 

AT ClARKSVILLE, AND AdDRESS TO THE SiX SyNODS. 

THE narrative of my life, as already alluded to and as 
appears in its progress thus far, is broken up to some 
extent necessarily by the fact that I have been endeavoring 
to live a sort of double life and to work out two diverse 
careers simultaneously. So it has been a matter of neces- 
sity, at times, to dwell entirely upon the incidental events 
of one of these departments, and to leave those of the 
other sphere of effort in temporary reserve to bide its time 
for record. The two forms of work thus have been sepa- 
rated in this way in their course, apparently, and only ap- 
parently. For it is a fact that, during the times of which 
my story treats, I have been combining the work of two 
men, and carrying on both at specific and appointed periods, 
so that the attention necessary to the discharge of duties 
belonging to the one should not encroach upon that which 
should be devoted to the other, and that neither should in- 
terfere with, but both, in the end, should prove to be mutu- 
ally auxiliary. 

The events recorded in the preceding chaj^ter embrace 
the period that elapsed from the latter part of December, 
1878, to the 4th of June, 1879. It must not be supposed 
that during these months I had been thinking and acting 
solely in connection with the absorbing interests of the in- 
stitution whose history I have dwelt upon so closely. It is 
true I had signified my willingness to accept the office of 

515 



516 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

Chancellor of Southwestern Presbyterian University, but I 
had not ceased to act as Secretary of Education. On the 
contrary, I had never been more devoted in my services in 
that capacity. I had kept up a constant correspondence 
"with the various churches and students, and had prepared 
the usual annual reports to be presented to the General As- 
sembly. I also attended the meeting of the Assembly held 
in Louisville, Ky., on May 15th ; read my report and gave 
information to the standing committee, addressed the As- 
sembly on the subject of Education, and heard expressions, 
from individuals and through the committee, approving of 
the year's work, and the usual amount of dissatisfaction with 
the plan of a separate executive committee for this purpose; 
and had the satisfaction of being able to report to the 
Assembly the payment of all the pledges to candidates for 
the current ecclesiastical year, and the reduction of the 
heavy debt which had been incurred by the preceding com- 
mittee, from $3,500 to $318, and I had the gratification, 
further, to be enabled to state that ample provision had 
been made to meet that small balance. 

This was the last meeting of the Assembly Avhich I ever 
attended in an official capacity, and my reason for declining 
at that time to surrender the trust which I had helT for five 
years was simply because I had not then fully made up my 
mind as to my future course. I returned to Memphis after 
the adjournment of the General Assembly, and spent the 
time, from the 26th of May till the 16th of June, at home, 
with the exception of the interval already accounted for in 
the preceding chapter, when I made my visit to Clarksville, 
and one to Lexington, Ky., to deliver an address before 
Sayro Institute. Having accepted the chancellorship at 
Clarksville, I called a meeting of the Executive Committee 
of Education for Monday, 16th of June, at which time I pre- 
sented my resignation of the office of secretary in the words 
following, viz. : 



Kesignation or Secketakyship. 517 

** To the Executive Committee of Education, in session, 

JIfemphis, Tenn. : 

" June 16, 1879. 

" Brethren : I lierewitli tender to you my resignation of 
tlie office of Secretary of Education, wliich I have held, un- 
der successive apjDointments of the General Assembly, for 
the past five years. Feeling justified in this course by cir- 
cumstances which seemed to me clearly to indicate its entire 
propriety, and which it is not expedient to mention, it only 
remains that I ask your acceptance of my resignation, and 
that I assure you of my abiding interest in the cause of 
beneficiary education. 

" The books, correspondence, and archives of the commit- 
tee, so far as they have come into my possession, shall be 
turned over at any time to the party properly authorized by 
the committee to take them in charge. The fullest infor- 
mation in regard to the condition of the cause under yoiu' 
care, so far as its interests have come imder the knowledge 
and control of the secretary', together with any desired in- 
struction as to the method of the office work, will be fur- 
nished, with sincere j^leasure, by the committee's fellow- 
servant in Christ Jesus, John N. AVaddel." 

N. B. — My term of office expired on the 31st of May, as 
on that day I accepted another office. The dechnatiu'e of 
the office would have been made to the Assembly itself but 
for the fact that the way was not clear to the mind of the 
secretary that it was right for him to do so at that time. 

The committee met on the IGth, and accepted my resig- 
nation, and action was taken to appoint a committee to pre- 
pare a paper expressive of the views of the Executive Com- 
mittee in relation to the resignation, and adjourned to meet 
again on the 23rd of June, and on that day Rev. E. M. 
Bichardson was elected Secretary of Education. On the 



518 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. B. 

24th the newly-appoiutecl secretary came to my house, and 
I transferred all the papers from my keeping to his; and 
thus ended my term of service as Secretary of Education. 

My occupation in this line of service to the church having" 
been brought to a close in Memphis, there remained nothing 
for me to do but to make preparation for removal from that 
city to my new field of labor; and to that I directed all my 
attention for the ensuing week. I delivered a farewell dis- 
course to the Lauderdale-street church on Sabbath, June 
29th, on 2 Corinthians, xiii. 11, and parted with the peo- 
ple with every manifestation of affection and regret on 
their part. The feeling which pervaded my soul in turn- 
ing my back upon Memphis, after a residence of five j^ears, 
was of a nature made up of combined sadness and relief. 
I forbear entering into any delineation of my state of mind 
on the subject, except to say that I was thankful to be as- 
sured that I had a warm place in the affection and confi- 
dence of many of the best people of the place, and was dis- 
posed to consign to silent forgetfulness anything that had 
marred my peace during my abode and term of service there. 
We took our departure on Tuesday, July 1st, and, Avith the 
payment of a visit to friends on the way for a day and two 
nights as our only delay, we reached Clarksville at six o'clock 
p. M. on the 3rd, in peace and safety, "by the good hand of 
our God upon us." 

I recur to the state of my mind on this new enterprise, 
not to give any history of the reasons for its existence, but 
to bring into view a single fact connected with my ex}3e- 
rience. It is this : That often, in the contemplation of pro- 
spective changes which seemed determined upon in my fu- 
ture, I have felt gloomy, and reluctant to meet them, and 
anticipated no enjoyment in their realization ; but when the 
time came to meet the demands and requirements of the 
situation, the way was found clear and smooth, and my fears 
were removed, and were succeeded by as much true comfort 



Arrival at Clark sville. 519 

and success as are allotted to any of God's servants in " this 
present evil world," with its prevalent imperfectness. It 
jDroved so preeminently in the case of my removal to Clarks- 
ville and my service there. I may add that it seems to me 
now, in the retrospect, that I went there under divine guid- 
ance, and was enabled to rejoice in the work performed. 

On my arrival, as it was during the vacation, and very 
few of the attaches of the University were present, I was 
oppressed with a sense of comparative loneliness. There 
were very few of the usual arrangements for the accommo- 
dation of a Faculty provided by the authorities of the Uni- 
versity. The members of the Faculty were not furnished 
with residences ; every Professor was obUged to rent or fur- 
nish his own house. The case of the Chancellor was no ex- 
ception to this rule. Some of the Faculty owned the houses 
and lots they occupied, and others of them rented places 
which were Avithin convenient distance of the campus. I, 
with no one to provide for except my wife, secured a small 
cottage on the premises of Professor Dinwiddle, and boarded 
with him for the first term of my service. The outlook was 
not bright for the new enterprise by any means. There had 
been a diminution of the number of students in attendance 
for some few sessions i^ast, and there had been no gTounds 
of lioj^e presented that there would be any considerable ac- 
cessions made very soon. There were many cheering ex- 
pressions circulated in the public journals of the State by 
the friends of the institution, and arguments abundant, set- 
ting forth the importance of patronizing the new Univer- 
sity as a great agency for promoting the interests of sound 
education. In furtherance of the objects contemplated by 
the institution, it was thought advisable that I should, in 
the capacity of Chancellor, issue some address to the pubHc 
on this occasion. Accordingly, I prepared and furnished 
for pubHcation in the newspapers the following as an an- 
nouncement of the Southwestern Presbyterian University: 



520 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

Salutatory. 
The undersigned yentures to indulge the hope that he is 
committing no offence against good taste, or that modesty 
that becomes his humble pretensions, in presenting his re- 
spectful salutations to the constituency of the University on 
assuming the high and responsible office of Chancellor, to 
which he was recently elected by the unsolicited and unani- 
mous suffrage of the Board of Directors. In vieiv of the 
many complimentary comments of the press on this action 
of the directory, as well as the expressions of personal con- 
gratulation received from numerous friends, he can certainly 
do no less than present his most sincere and profound ac- 
knowledgments. Furthermore, he cheerfully pledges, in 
advance, the devotion of whatever powers and endowments 
he may possess, and the utilization of his long and varied 
experience as an educator, to this new and difficult enter- 
prise, with a firm determination to discharge his whole duty 
to the full extent of his ability, in humble reliance upon the 
gracious assistance of the great Head of the church to 
whose glory the institution has been solemnly dedicated. 
To the 337 ministers and the 3,800 church members under 
the care of the six Synods which control the University, 
viz. : Alabama, Arkansas, Memphis, Mississippi, Nashville, 
and Texas, the directors and the Faculty naturally look for 
the encouragement arising from the zealous exertion of their 
moral influence in recommending the institution to the favor 
of their circles of association for patronage to fill our class- 
rooms with a large accession of students, and for such ma- 
terial aid as can be extended to increase the permanent en- 
dowment fund of the University, whereby its blessings may 
he perpetuated to successive generations. 

II. Advantages of Location. 
The remoteness of the city of Clarksville from the ex- 
tremes of our territory has been pressed as an objection to 



Southwestern Presbyterian Universitt. 521 

the location. This is met by the fact that it is accessible by 
railway from all points, and other facilities of approach are 
in contemplation at an early day. The healthfulness of 
Clarksville will challenge comparison with that of any place 
in all the land. While it is not "the joy of the whole 
earth," it is certainly "beautiful for situation," reposing 
upon the hills of Montgomery, embowered among grand old 
forest trees, and having its base washed by the clear-flowing 
waters of the Cumberland. It is compactl}^ built, adorned 
with costly and attractive residences and public buildings, 
surrounded by large and commodious lots, beautified by 
green grassy law^ns and a rich profusion of shrubbery and 
flowers. These material surroundings are part, and they 
are a legitimate part, of the evidences of the high state of 
culture and refinement of the citizens of the place. Wher- 
ever persons who have from time to time sojourned in 
Clarksville, for a longer or shorter period, have been met, 
their voluntary testimony has been given to the superiority 
of the population, their high moral tone, their genial hospi- 
tality, their social tendencies, and their consistent religions 
character. The membershii^ of the various churches is 
generally large and influential, the houses of worship im- 
posing and commodious, and the pulpits of the city are filled 
with able, devoted, and successful pastors. The population 
is estimated at about six thousand, and is increasing. The 
city is rapidly improving ; the burnt district is nearly again 
occupied by massive structures of a bettor class and more 
imposing architecture than those which w^ere destroyed a 
year or two since. Such is the proper description of the 
place, physically and morall}", to which our friends are in- 
vited to send their sons for education. 

III. Prospects of the XTniversity. 
Of course, this is very much a matter of conjecture. All 
anticij)ations connected with the subject, to be rehable, must 



522 John N. Waddel, D. D , LL. D. 

suppose certain facts as a basis of calculation. Our friendSy 
as they are scattered over all tliis broad land which stretches- 
from the northern limit of Tennessee to the Gnlf, on the 
south, and from the eastern line of Alabama to the Rio 
Grande, on the west, must put forth their strenuous efforts 
in securing students who shall resort to us for instruction 
and training. Without this prime fundamental considera- 
tion of personal effort, and the exertion of personal influence 
in making known and recommending the institution, we 
shall struggle hopelessly on, as so many of our schools of so- 
called higher learning have done. But if our friends will 
but work energetically, our halls will be very soon crowded 
with students. The citizens of Clarksville must rally around 
the University. This, we feel persuaded, they will do. They 
have done so in times past. They are prepared, with their 
moral ^veight and otherwise, to sustain all the efforts of the 
directory and the Faculty to build U}) tho institution. There 
is nothing more potent as a factor in securing success to 
such an enterprise than the favor and kind feelings of the 
immediately surrounding community. Without it, failure is 
almost inevitable ; with it, everything is encouraging in the 
future. Now, let this morally weighty, influential commu- 
nity of Clarksville stand by and support the authorities in 
every good word and work, co-operating with them in cver}^ 
way for the success and good order of the institution, and 
this will strengthen the hearts of the Faculty and friends, 
and parents will be re-assured of the safety and moral pro- 
tection of their sons who may be entrusted to our care. And 
for the members of the Faculty, who are the immediate 
guardians of the interests of the University, the honored 
colleagues of the undersigned, I am persuaded that, with 
their eminent and tried qualifications as instructors, their 
experience of many years in the management of schools of 
learning, and their well-known success amid many opposing 
circumstances, the best founded hopes may be indulged that 



Advantages of the Tjniversitt. 523 

the institution, with God's blessing to accompany their 
work, may i^rove a grand success. None of them, it may be 
asserted, will feel disi^osed to shrink from the share allotted 
to them as individuals, and to the body as a unit. The labor 
imposed upon each is very heavy, but they will be found 
equal to duty. With fidelity and devotion to work, indus- 
try and vigilance, with harmony in co-operation, such as 
will be reasonably anticipated, it would seem that God's 
smile of favor would be all that would be required to com- 
mand success, and Clarksville w^ould be developed into a 
grand educational centre for all our six Synods, and the 
blessed influence of Christian culture would extend to all 
the region round about and beyond. 

" Our endowment is respectable, but we hope to increase 
it. We have a supply of class-room apparatus, mechanical, 
chemical, astronomical, and electrical, and to these addi- 
tions will be made. The scientific library is unusually fine, 
the donation of the late Wm. M. Stewart, and our facihties 
will be found ample in all respects for imparting a first-class 
education. 

" Send us, therefore, students, and let our work be illustra- 
ted in the preparation and sending forth of highly-culti- 
vated Christian citizens in all departments of human effort 
and usefulness. The University is not designed to be 
ephemeral, but to be perpetuated, and if its friends respond 
to its demands and reasonable claims, there seems no reason 
why it may not become a fountain of usefulness, a nursery 
of piety, and a source of infinite blessedness for generations 
yet unborn. John N. Waddel, Chancellor.'' 

The above was published extensively in the newspapers 
throughout all the adjacent States; and we were very busily 
engaged during the vacation in writing and answering let- 
ters in reference to the aiDproaching session, and in prepar- 
ing for the reception of students until the 1st of September, 
on which day the exercises of the University were regularly 
opened, with something like forty students in attendance. 



CHAPTEK LIIT. 

The Epidemic Again. — Number of Students. — The Public School. — 
The Free Feature of the University. — Character of the 
Faculty. — The Student-Body Before and After the New Or- 
ganization. —Discipline AND Christian Influence. 

¥E had scarcely found ourselves fairly settled in our 
new quarters wlien the exciting intelligence was 
flashed along the wires that the city of Memphis was again 
■visited by the yellow-fever, and the trains were crowded 
with refugees who were fleeing from the epidemic. This 
interrupted the travel to some extent, and no doubt created 
some apprehension of danger on the part of many who had 
thought of sending students to Clarksville. For although 
the distance between the two places was two hundred miles, 
yet the communication between them was direct and open. 
The people of Clarksville were much exercised upon the sub- 
ject, and held a meeting to consider the question of quaran- 
tining against Memphis ; and although there was a portion 
of the citizens in favor of throwing open the town to 
the refugees, there was a majority who decided against that 
course, and so the town was placed under strict quarantine 
regulations. It was in this position that we found ourselves 
about the middle of July ; and although many people from 
Memphis did make their temporary sojourn in Clarksville, 
and two military companies of the city of Memphis en- 
camped there during the summer, yet not a case occurred 
of fever in the city of Clarksville. The panic subsided 
after a few weeks, and the ravages of the plague were not 
comparable to those of the summer of 1878, and we settled 
down with earnestness to our academic labors, and suftered 
no interruption from the visitation of yellow-fever. 

524 



Need of Preparatory "Work. 525 

Our catalogue of the first session records the number of 
students in attendance on all the courses. We were patron- 
ized to some extent by all the constituent Synods, and, in 
addition, by Georgia and Kentucky. They were appor- 
tioned as regards the various courses in the languages and 
sciences to a more enlarged extent than ordinarily is found 
in new institutions, which was truly a gratifying circum- 
stance in our prospective sphere of labor. There were, even 
in the School of Philosophy, of which I was placed in 
charge as my department of instruction, no less than thirty- 
five. We found our classes also including in their number, 
in various stages of advancement, ten candidates for the 
ministry. Yet such was the limited range and defective 
quality of preparatory schools throughout the entire region 
of country from which our j^atronage was drawn, that the 
Professors in Latin, Greek and Mathematics were obliged to 
do double duty in training unprepared students in the ele- 
ments of those schools. This was, however, an advantage 
of great importance and value to the students themselves, 
as they were in this way much more thoroughly fitted for 
the more advanced departments of the University schools, 
and more intimately familiar with the methods of the pro- 
fessors by daily association with them for at least one addi- 
tional academic year. The city of Clarksville had in opera- 
tion then, and also previous to our organization, the public 
school system, which was well sustained and largely j^atron- 
ized. It was not like many of the schools of the system in 
other places, which are in active operation for onlj a limited 
portion of the j^ear, but its sessions were held through the 
usual term of the scholastic year. The town originally 
made a very generous contribution to the Directory as an 
inducement to locate the University at Clarksville, on this, 
among other conditions, that the public school should be en- 
titled to ten free scholarships, to be awarded to those stu- 
dents of the public school who should be adjudged entitled 



526 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

to a scholarship upon examination. This was often con- 
ferred upon young men who properly appreciated their op- 
portunity and improved their advantages, but, as is some- 
times the case, others thus favored failed to meet the respon- 
sibility accompanying the benefaction. Yet there were also 
among our free students of this class those who reflected 
credit upon the University in their after course in life. 

The free feature of the institution was based upon two 
other principles in its original establishment, and these be- 
came, in process of time, very largely adopted and practiced 
in the reception of students. One of them was part and 
parcel of the very nature of our system as a church college, 
viz. : that all candidates for the miuistry of the Presbyterian 
Church should be trained free of all tuition fees. The other 
was that all sons of Presbyterian ministers should be ad- 
mitted free of tuition fees. This last provision is not with- 
out reason, as, w^hile it may be accompanied by a diminu- 
tion of the salaries of the officers of the Faculty, it relieved 
the authorities of any burden of debt to them, which is often 
found to be incurred by colleges where fixed salaries are 
pledged upon the basis of tuition receipts. In the case of 
the Southwestern Presbyterian University, the number of 
professorships unendowed were supported by distributing 
the actual proceeds of the entire tuition fees among the Pro- 
fessors, and this, of course, was subject to fluctuation ; but 
at the same time, out of the general endowment fund, an 
income was sufficient and secure to pay to each an invariable 
bonus, which they might confidently rely upon, and would 
ordinarily enable the Professors to sustain themselves. 

The University of Mississippi charges no candidate for 
the ministry of any church, nor any young man who is de- 
sirous to obtain an education, and unable to pay tuition. 
But it is abundantly able to afford this generosity by its 
ample endowment lodged in the State treasury ; brt church 
colleges and universities are not in circumstances of financial 



1 



Clakksville and the Unr'ersity. 527 

ability sucli as those of Mississippi University, and while 
the latter should have the credit of her generosity, it must 
be kept in mind that she can well afford it. 

On this subject it has always been to me a surprising, and 
yet a most gratifying fact, that the Southwestern Presbyte- 
rian University has been so highly favored as to retain in 
service for so long a period Professors of such acknowledged 
ability as those occupying the several chairs of instruction 
in the Faculty. It is not, by any means, an extravagant 
^3stimate of the merit justly accorded to these gentlemen, 
that they would have been found, respectively, fully equal to 
any similar position in any of the institutions of the higher 
learning in the country. I have no doubt that it is due, in 
]3art, to the fact that the community in which the Universitj- 
is located is justly reputed as remarkable for its genial 
courtesy and social feeling, and for its refined and generous 
bearing toward the University. That this was not the case 
in its original opening is known to those familiar with the 
history of the institution. It is not possible to state, proba- 
bly with absolute certainty, the causes which might have 
combined to produce a result which, at the first, seemed to 
argue coldness of interest toward the University on the part 
of the citizens. And even were it possible, it will not be 
proper to enter it on record, as it most assuredly no longer 
exists. The citizens, as is well known, began to take great 
pride in the institution, and to regard it as an acquisition to 
the city, every way calculated to attract attention from 
abroad and add to the population of Clarksville. 

Those of the authorities in more immediate charge of the 
institution were resolved, from the beginning, to devote 
their best energies to the elevation of its character and the 
grade of its standard. That they were successful to a most 
gratifying extent, in the course of time, is a matter of his- 
tory that is well known to all who had the opportunity to 
watch the progress of events in the gradual development of 
the system newly established. 



528 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

The College, for some years jirevious to 1879, had lost the 
confidence of the region from which its support was mainly 
drawn, as to the character of the student -body. When the 
University was opened, there was found a mixture, consist- 
ing of a goodly proportion of young men of the highest 
character for morals and intelligence, with young boys who 
had no proper appreciation of their surroundings, and who 
were not disposed to be studious or law-abiding. The for- 
mer consisted of candidates for the ministry and others of 
sufficient maturity of age and purpose to induce them to make 
the wisest use of their time and opportunities. The latter were 
just of the class always found in schools, and even in colleges, 
who seek their own enjo3anent in any pursuit rather than in 
books and stud}-. The misfortune was that these last were 
proportionally numerous, and this gave them confidence in 
their chosen methods. From them proceeded all those 
petty annoyances in which idle students delight to engage 
for the purposes of disorder and trouble. " College tricks " 
of mischief became very common, and the equanimity of the 
Faculty Vvas often distured at night by shouting noises on 
the streets. It was nearly always expected that some exhi- 
bition of low practical mischief would be presented on the 
assembling of the Faculty and students at morning prayer in 
the chapel. This course of things, for the first session, was 
very discouraging, I must confess, to myself, and almost in- 
duced a conviction that I had committed a great error of 
judgment in undertaking to build up an institution of such 
material. But I will cease to dwell upon these matters 
further than to add that, by persistent enforcement of dis- 
cipline, sometimes of the rigid kind, and at other times of 
a milder character, but always impartial, and adapted to 
each case individually, we were gratified to observe a steady 
and sure, though gradual, improvement and elevation of the 
character of the student-body, year after year, until after 
three yeaj:s of the University had elapsed, such low and vul- 



Religious Instruction. 529' 

gar habits had disappeared from among the students. 
While, therefore, we cannot record such a state of conduct- 
existing as apj)roached perfection, yet every observer might 
have marked the reformation of manners and bearing in. 
their pubhc association with the community from time to 
time. The annual report of the chancellor to the directory 
gave the gratifying statement that the year had closed with- 
out a case of discipline. Beligious instruction entered into 
the course to a very large extent. The School of the Bible 
was not among the clectives at all ; it was required of every 
student, and for the attainment of any of the degrees in the 
course, it formed an essential prerequisite. To this wa& 
added that Sal^bath instruction was imparted to every stu- 
dent, and, for this purpose, he was required to attend the= 
Sabbath- school of some evangelical church in the city, at the- 
discretion and choice of the parent or guardian. At art. 
early period in the historj^ of the University a Young Men's 
Christian Association was formed among the students, con- 
sisting of active and associate members, and this proved a sig- 
nal advantage, contributing to the elevation of the institution 
and the cultivation of the Christian character of the students. 
Our morning worship consisted of music, led by profes- 
sors who were scientific musicians, who performed on a 
cabinet organ, and there was among the students a regular- 
choir of singers. The Bible was read and prayer offered. 
We called no roll, but the students were distributed inta 
classes of ten, and each class assigned to a separate seat in 
the chapel, with its own monitor, furnished with a card, on, 
which were written the names of his class of ten, and his 
sole duty was to note absentees, and hand his card on Sat- 
urday morning to the presiding officer, and receive a new^ 
card for the ensuing week. Hymn-books also were dis- 
tributed among the students, and it was really enjoyable to 
be present at prayers on account of the music, in which the^ 
large body of them engaged, with j^erfect decorum. 
34 



530 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

By this sort of control, continued for some time, and by 
the personal intercourse which was established between the 
professors and the students, partaking, as far as was possi- 
ble, of the family nature, that disposition which seems to 
have prevailed among the institutions of the times long 
passed, and which seemed at first also to be very generally 
characteristic of the students of our first sessions, viz., to 
look upon the Faculty as antagonistic to the student body in 
their feelings, to our great gratification, gradually disap- 
peared, and the relations which ultimately obtained between 
us became most pleasant and confidential. 



CHAPTER LIV. 

Pkoceedings and Action of*the Boakd. — Resignation of Pkofessok 
DiNwiDDiE. — Election of Professor Massif. — Eesignation op 
Professor Hemphill. — Election of Professor Nicolassen. — Es- 
tablishment OF A Chair and Its Endowment. —Election op Dr. 
Welch. — Eefusal of Presbytery to Dissolve Pastoral Pcela- 
TioN. — Dr. Price Elected and Accepting. 

THE University continued tlie even tenor of its way, with- 
out any change of a material kind, until Commeaicement 
on the first Wednesday, the 2d of June, 1880. The usual 
preliminary exercises connected with the occasion were all 
successfully jmssed through. The directory met on May 
28th, and closed their session on Wednesday, June 2d, eight 
being present. No new or important items occupied tho 
Eoard, but the chancellor delivered his inaugural address, 
and he was regularly installed in the oiEce in which he had 
been acting for a year past, the keys, emblematic of au- 
thority, being deHvered to him by Eev. Dr. Palmer, accom- 
panied by a brief and cordial address. We closed with a 
Eaculty as full in number as our means of payment would 
admit at the time, and we had been remarkably successful 
in collecting the entire income due from students for Uni- 
versity charges, amounting to nearly $3,000, to which was 
added the semi-annual dividend arising from the endow- 
ment fund, which was $3,000. We felt, therefore, that we 
had thus far reahzed our anticipations of success, and we 
"thanked God, and took courage." 

The Professorship of Mathematics was vacated after 
Commencement by the resignation of Professor Dinwiddle, 
and we were called upon unexpectedly to fill this chair, 

531 



532 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

whicli could be done only procisionalli/ by the Executive 
Committee, as tlie Board of Directors bad adjourned and 
could not be assembled at Clarksville conveniently. 

"We met for this purpose accordingly, and proceeded to 
read testimonials and discuss the claims of candidates who 
had been nominated. Out of the following list of names, 
viz. : D. B. Johnson, of Knoxville ; G. B. Halstead, of 
Princeton ; C. C. Norwood, of Georgia, and E. B. Massie, of 
Charlottesville, Va., we, by a unanimous vote, elected the 
last named gentleman, Mr. E. B. Massie, Professor of 
Mathematics. 

We, of course, could not object to either of his competi- 
tors, as they were all alike entire strangers to us, but the re- 
sults w4iich have followed the choice of Professor Massie in 
the history of his connection with the University, and the 
universal testimony of Faculty, directors, and all the succes- 
sive bodies of students that have enjoyed the benefit of his 
instruction, and the influence of his personal and social in- 
tercourse Avith them, would, if ascertained, be that we were 
certainly wisely guided in our selection, and that we secured 
*'the right man in the right place." The Board ratified 
this action of the Executive Committee at their next meet- 
ing. Two facts may be recorded as occurring during this 
session which (although in o?ie of them I was j^ersonally 
concerned) exerted some influence upon the interest of the 
"University. On the 11th of February of this year I became 
conscious for the first time of my having symptoms of a dis- 
ease that has never been entirely remedied or eradicated 
from my system, although every possible and almost every 
conceivable effort of an earthly nature has been resorted to 
by physicians to the present time after the lapse of eight 
years. I was for five of those years a great sufferer, and 
yet continued to serve as best I could as Chancellor of the 
University. The result, however, need not be anticipated, 
as it will have its record at the proper time in the j^rogress 
of this narrative. 



A Generous Donation. 533 

Another matter claims notice just now bearing directly 
upon the fortunes of the institution, which was the election 
of Professor C. E. Hemphill, of our Faculty, to the position 
of "Associate Professor of Biblical Literature, with the sal- 
ar}^ of full Professor" (and a 3'ear later, on the death of 
Dr. Howe, he succeeded to the full chair of " Biblical Lit- 
erature," covering the " Exegesis of the Old and New Testa- 
ments, as well as instruction in the Hebrew Language and 
New Testament Greek ") in the Columbia Theological Semi- 
nary, his acceptance of the appointment, and his resignation 
of the Professorship of Ancient Languages in our University. 
He had filled this chair for three years with signal ability 
and universal acceptance, and his departure w^as felt to be a 
great loss to the University and the communit}^ and esj)e- 
cially regretted by the social Faculty circle, which was much 
devoted to him and his charming family. 

The attention of the Board was called at once to the fill- 
ing of two important chairs ; one vacated by the resignation 
of Professor Hemphill. The occasion for the filling of the 
other needs a brief explanation. 

The professorship) of History, English Literature and 
Elocution had been filled at the re-organization of the Uni- 
versity in 1879 by the appointment of Rev. Dr. Shearer, 
and he had been conducting the instruction in that school, 
and at the same time he had been charged with teaching 
the Bible. The work required by these two departments 
was manifestly too onerous for one incumbent, and it had 
been the purpose of the Board to appoint an additional 
professor as soon as the requisite endowment could be se- 
cured. Just about this time, Mr. J. J. McComb, near the 
city of New York, made the generous donation of $30,000 
as the basis of a professorship (through Rev. Dr. Palmer) to 
the University. This being presented at this meeting, the 
Board proceeded at once to make use of it for the support 
of the additional chair; and as Dr. Shearer preferred the 



534 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

chair of Biblical Instruction, it was resolved that he should 
now be made professor in that school, and that it should be 
placed in the same grade with those already established. In 
the meantime they proceeded to fill the chair of History, 
etc., and rested its support upon the McComb fund just 
presented. The Board at once then, by a unanimous vote, 
elected to this position Rev. Thos. E. Welch, D. D., one of 
the Directors from Arkansas. Dr. W. being present, signi- 
fied his willingness to accept the appointment subject to the 
action of the session of the Presbyterian church in Little 
Rock, of which he was pastor. There were several candi- 
dates for the chair of Ancient Languages, and among them 
gentlemen of eminent qualifications according to highly 
complimentary and satisfactory testimonials. The election 
resulted in the choice of G, F. Nicolassen, Ph. D., of Johns 
Hopkins University. So that our Faculty was now in- 
creased in number and efficiency by filling the McComb 
Professorship. On June 7th the Board met and brought 
their business to a close by electing Rev. Dr. Welch vice- 
chancellor. We closed the exercises of the academic year, 
and dismissed the students for the long summer vacation of 
three months, to open again on September 1st. 

The Board made provision previous to adjournment for 
meeting any emergency that might occur in case of a re- 
fusal, on the part of the Presbytery of Arkansas, to allow 
Dr. Welch to leave the Little Rock church, by which the 
execittive committee were instructed to elect Dr. Robert 
Price to the professorship of English Literature. Informa- 
tion was in due time received from Rev. Dr. Craig, who had 
attended the meeting of the Presbytery as the representa- 
tive of the directory for the purpose of urging them to dis- 
solve the pastoral relation, and also from Dr. Welch him- 
self, to the effect that the Presbytery refused to consent to 
the dissolution. These letters were received by me while I 
was absent from home, on July 31st, at Wankeshaw, whither 



Increase of Patronage. 535 

I had gone to s^Deud a season for my broken health. I at 
once -wrote to Dr. Lupton at Clarksville, and urged that a 
meeting of the executive committee be called at once, and 
that they should carry into effect the instructions of the 
Board, and elect Dr. Robert Price, of Vicksburg, Miss. This 
was done by them, and in process of time he accepted the 
call, and, being released by his Presbytery (Central Missis- 
sippi), he resigned the charge of the church in Vicksburg, 
made his arrangements at once, and effected his removal, 
arriving at Clarksville on September 8th, and was engaged 
in regular work on the 11th. Dr. Nicolassen, the newly- 
elected Professor of Languages, who had arrived on the 
30th of August, was at work at a very early period of the 
session; and as large accessions of new students were 
arriving daily by every train, the usual degree of pleasant 
excitement consequent upon the opening of a new session 
prevailed, and all concerned found themselves very closely 
engaged in the several departments of work assigned to 
each in his sphere. 

AVe had very little interruption to our internal progress 
this entire session, slight cases of discipline only occurring 
occasionally, easily disposed of without rigid apjDlication of 
correction. The scholarship of the student-body was im- 
proved, their deportment much more manly and dignified^ 
and the patronage handsomely increased. I find, on a re- 
view of the first four sessions of the University, ending in. 
1883, that the improvement was steady and gradual in 
every desirable resj)ect as regards the character of the stu- 
dent body. It is attributable, under the blessing of God, to 
some extent to the natui'e of the system of disciphne in. 
operation, as already alluded to, and to the additional fact 
that there was every year an addition of pious students. It 
is admitted that such an influence as this last is not so 
effective always as may be expected, and as should be, from 
the nature of the case. But when we observe that the same 



536 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

deficiency is discovered to exist in sociej:y, and even among" 
the membership of organized churches, it may be accounted 
ior as readily in the one case as in the other. The latter 
of these cases, used here to illustrate a fact, it would seem, 
ishould be under a deeper sense of obligation to elevate and 
Tefine public morals, from their more extensive experience, 
und from their more prominent position, than a body of 
students occupying a comparatively subordinate jDOsition. 
Tet while the churches are not exerting an universal influ- 
ence for good, we should find, by their expulsion, or their ab- 
sence from any community, the disastrous consequences 
that would immediately follow. Just so the presence of a 
greater or less infusion of the element of i^iety into any stu- 
dent body will be the means of a perceptible correspondent 
and relative elevation and refinement of character of the 
mass of the students. They are a part of " the salt of the 
..earth," and act as the preservative element. 
p : We find, in the announcement of the year 1886-'87, the 
statement that Mr. S. B. Steers, of New Orleans, had estab- 
lished a fund of $500 a year as a pious memorial of his son, 
Edward C. Steers, deceased, to be used, under the direction 
of the Faculty of the Southwestern Presbyterian University, 
in aiding candidates for the ministry in the institution, sub- 
ject to such regulations as may seem wise. 1 add to this 
that this amount of $500 was regularl}^ remitted by the 
donor, Mr. Steers, in prompt quarterly payments during his 
life. At his death, he, by bequest, left the sum of ten thou- 
sand dollars for this purpose, the interest of which sum 
.only is to be used. 

Two other distinguished gentlemen, friends of the insti- 
tution, generously aided in the support of needy candidates 
ior the ministry, j^rovided they were represented by proper 
authority as promising, as well as needy. 



CHAPTER LY. 

Divinity School Established. —Election of Professob, and the 
Chair Endowed. —Dr. Cs^ldwell's Resignation. 

IT should be understood, and is here recorded, that in the 
original organization of the University it was the design 
of the Board of Directors to enlarge the sphere of its opera- 
tions, so as to make it what its name would naturally imply, 
a comprehensive combination of such other schools as the 
nature of the case demands, and as the means and re- 
sources at their control w^ould authorize. Especially was it 
contemplated that a " School of Divinity," or a " Theological 
Seminary," should constitute a prominent part of the sys- 
tem. The constantly increasing number of candidates i^re- 
seifiting themselves annually for admission into our classes, 
preparatory to their entrance upon the study of theology, 
and cognate departments, some of whom were already grad- 
uated from the Department of Literature and Science, im- 
pressed upon the minds of the members of the Board the 
urgent importance of carrying out this scheme, and the 
time seemed propitious for inaugurating the school at the 
the earUest period possible. Accordingly, at the annual 
meeting of the Board in 1884, it was decided unanimously 
to add a theological school to this University. In pursu- 
ance of this purpose, the following action was taken : 

" 1. The School of Theology shall be a component part of 
the University, in the same manner and under the same regu- 
lations, and under the same general supervision of the Chan- 
cellor, as the other schools now existing. 

''2. The instruction in Theology, Didactic, Historic and 
Polemic, is assigned to the Professor of Theology ; the He- 

537 



538 John N. Waj)del, IX D., LL. D. 

brow and N(;\v Tcslamont Grook, is placocl midor tlio charge 
of Dr. J. ]1 Hhoaror; Church History, under that of Dr. 
Price; Clmrcli Polity, under that of Dr. Waddcl ; and Dr. 
J. W. Lni)ton is reciuesttid io <^ive instrnc-tion in Pastoial 
Thoolooy. 

"This general oiilline is intc^ided io ^ive to the professor 
of tlieolo«.vy the assiinincc! of the sii])port he will need in 
the olTico of instruction. It may he niodilied to any extent 
hy conference hetwt^en himself jind the Faculty of the Uni- 
versity, wluni he shall iak(! ihe Avork in hand to which he is 
chosen. 

"The School of '^^riieolof^y will be open, for the reception of 
siiidenis S(^ptemb(^r 1st, ISSf)." 

The Board at once felt the necessity of placing this 
grea^t trust in ihe hands of iho right ]nan as professor, 
and by a common imi)ulse a com-niittee was appointed to 
Avait on i)r. Palnun;, and ascertain his views as to accept- 
ance of the ])rof(issorship. He very clearlv and unecpiivo- 
cally declined to entei'tain the idea. On I^fonday, June 
2d, the Board ])roc(H>d(Ml to an election of a professor of 
theology, which resulted in the choice of Bev. B. L. })ab- 
ney, D. D. ]>y ordc^r of the Board I Avrote a long and 
earnest letter to \^y. Dabnt^v, which Avas signed hy Dr. 
Palmer, ]^r. Welch, and myself, and entrusted to Dr. INIar- 
shall to deliver to the Doctor personall3\ On Juno 21st, I 
received a long, kind, and yet decisive letter from ]^r. Dab- 
ney, declining the professorship to Avliich he had been 
elected. This Avas grc^atly to our disappointment, but Ave 
Avere iioav called upon to d(;\ise a metlu)d by Avhich this 
difiiculty could be met, so as to fill the chair in time for the 
session of 1885. At a meeting of the executive commit- 
tee, held on September 24th, at Avhich Dr. Palmer Avas 
present, the cpiestion Avas discussiul — first, as to the pro- 
priety of conducting an election l)y correspond(nice ; and, 
second, by nominating a candidate and addressing a circu- 



A Professor of Theology. 539 

lar to each diroctor individually, V(Hiu(^sl,in<;- him it) nolo by 
letter his approval or disapproval. Aiiov much discussion, 
the name of Rev. Dr. J. II. Wilson was presented as the 
nominee for the chair of Theolooy, and a circular "was 
agreed upon, a copy of "which Mas io ho forwarded by mail 
to each director for his consideration. This was done, and 
in due course of time answers w^ere received from all, indi- 
cating, by a largo majority, their acceptance of ]>r. AVilsou 
as pr()f(^ssor of theology. Ho was writicn to ollicially and 
infornuHl of his election, and signilied his willingness to ac- 
c(»2)t the appointment. Thus wo W(U-o enabled to announce 
through our catalogue that the School of Theology would 
form a prominent department of the University at the open- 
ing of the session 1885, with Dr. AVilson as princij)!!! pro- 
fessor. There was not a dollar of endownu>ut providtnl a(, the 
tinu^ but the Board appointed He v. 11. F. Bunting, D. D., 
agent for the purpose of raising tlio funds for that purpose, 
and Dr. Bunting entered at once upon the work assigned 
him. In the meantime, provisional pknlges were secured in 
the six Synods, from friends, to ensure the payment of the 
salaiy of tlie professor until such time should elapse as 
might bo necessary when the (Mul(nvment would bo com- 
pleted, invested and productive. We nuiy dismiss this nuit- 
ter by stating that the blessing of God crowned the enter- 
prise with perfect success, and lliat Ww chair in due <iino 
was fully establishcHl. 

It is a most gratifying fact, tliat the eslablisluncul of lliis 
deparfment of the ITniversity at so early a pi>riod in the his- 
tory of the University was reali/A^d luider circumstances so 
entirely satisfactory. "When we remember that there was 
not in the treasury of the University one dollar which might 
be devoted to tlui support of the Divinity School, nor, at its 
inauguration, any pledges from any source that such sup- 
port should be furnished; and yet that the Board of l^ircc- 
tors had the strong conviction that induced them to go fur- 



540 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

ward in the work; it was veril}- no other than an act of 
faith in the God of infinite wisdom and love, under whose 
guidance the institution had thus far been so signalh' sus- 
tained, and had been built up in honor and usefulness to his 
church. This is the true secret of all success, and it is 
cause of grateful remembrance, on a review of this part of 
the Board's administration, that this strong and fervent 
faith in God was inspired into their hearts and strengthened 
them to go forward in the work. And now, when we look 
into the progress of events in connection with that period 
which has elapsed since the actual opening of the Divinity 
School, our conviction of the propriety of its organization is 
well assured by the fruits which have resulted in the com- 
pletion of the theological courses of so many young brethren, 
and their prompt entrance upon the work of preaching the 
gospel in various parts of our Southern Zion. 

The resignation of Dr. John AV. Caldwell of the chair of 
Natural Sciences, which he had filled acceptably for many 
years, rendered it necessary that we should take steps at an 
early period to supply, as far as jDossible, the vacancy thus 
occurring. The executive committee in this case, not deem- 
ing it advisable to go into even a provisional election of a 
professor who should be recommended to the Board for 
confirmation at their annual meeting, were fortunate in find- 
ing that the duties of the chair could be discharged for the 
remainder of the session by Professor E. B. Massie, who 
was not only fully qualified, but kind enough to undertake 
the additional labor of instruction that would be necessary 
until the close of the session. 

The resignation of Dr. Caldwell was felt by the Faculty 
to be a serious loss to the University, and a series of resolu- 
tions were passed by them of the most complimentary char- 
acter, expressive of their sense of his high and valuable ser- 
vices and usefulness to the University, as well as their 
sincere regret in the loss that they would sustain of the so- 



Close of Fifth Session. 541 

ciety of liimself , and that of his refined and esteemed family, 
from our circle of association. Dr. Caldwell was very soon 
placed in a position of commanding influence and useful- 
ness as Professor of Chemistry and Geology, and curator of 
the Museum in Tulane University, New Orleans. Beyond 
the exercises usually occurring at Commencement, • which 
were creditable in 1883, nothing of remarkable interest is 
recorded, except the matters already referred to above. 

Thus ended the fifth session of the University, during 
which period much material action, mainly preparatory, had 
been transacted by the authorities, and the actual execution 
was reserved for 1884-85. 

At the annual meeting of directors, on May 30th to June 
3rd, inclusive, the vacancy in the Stew^art professorship, oc- 
casioned by the resignation of Professor J. W. Caldwell, 
was filled by the appointment of Professor James A. Lyon, 
Ph. D., by a unanimous vote of the Board. Dr. Lyon was 
a son of the Rev. J. A. Lyon, D. D., and was a graduate of 
Nassau Hall, Princeton, New Jersey, where he had held a 
high grade as a student, and at the time of graduation had 
awarded to him a fellowship for superior mathematical at- 
tainments. He had filled a chair in Highland University, in 
the State of Kansas, and in a collegiate institute of high re- 
pute at York, Pa., and at the time of his election to the 
chair at Clarksville he held the professorship of Physical 
Science in the Washington and Jefferson College, of Penn- 
sylvania. Dr. Lyon accepted the call, and entered upon the 
duties of the chair at the opening of the session, September, 
1885. 



CHAPTEE LYI. 

Oeganization of the Divinity and Academic Schools. — First Class, 
— Sketch of De. Welch. 

WE opened under the enlarged system establislied and 
inaugurated by the Board September 8tli under the 
following Faculties in the Academic and Divinity Schools : 

ACADEMIC FACULTY. 
John N. Waddel, D. D., LL, D., Chancellor, Professor in the School of 

PJiilosophy. 
Key. J. B. Sheaeer, D. D. , Professor in the School of Biblical Instruct 

tion. 
S. J. CoFFMAN, A. M. , Professor in the School of Modern Languages. 
E. B. Massie, a. M., Professor in the School of Muthematics. 
G. F. NicoLAssEN, A. M, , Ph. D, , Professor in the School of Ancient 

Languages. 
Hev. Egbert Price, D. D., McComh Professor in the School of History, 

English Literature, History and Rhetoric. 
J. A, Lyon, A. M. , Ph. D.„ Stewart Professor in the School of Natural 

Sciences. 
N. Smylie, a. B. , Assistant P7vfessor in several Schools. 

FACULTY OF THE DIVINITY SCHOOL. 
Eev, J. N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D., Chancellor, Professor of Church 

Polity. 
Rev. Joseph E. Wilson, D. D., Professor of Theology and Homiletics. 
Eev. J. B. Shearer, D. D., LL. D., Professor of Hebrew and New 

Testame?it Greek. 
Eev. Egbert Price, D. D. , Professor of Ecclesiastical History. 
Eev. J. W. LuPTON, D. D., Professor of Practical Theology. 

In all, there were twenty-one candidates for the ministry 
pursuing the preparatory studies, and there were sixteen 
"who constituted the first class of the Divinity School. This 

S42 



Death of Key. Dr. Welch. 543 

was the beginning of this department, and was the only 
j)rofessional course as 3'et estabhshed. It closed this first 
session with most satisfactory results. The scheme adopted 
contemplates the simple principle that its various schools 
are in reality but one, and the government and depart- 
ments bear the same relation to the University as do those 
of the academic schools. The two Faculties and the 
discipline are one. The chancellor is the chief execu- 
tive and the presiding officer of the whole. During the 
progress of this session the institution was called, in the 
providence of God, to a great affliction in the loss of Rev. 
Dr. Welch, a prominent and most efficient member of the 
Board of Directors from the beginning of the institution, 
and who, at the time of his death, was vice-president of the 
Board. Some notice of such a man, it would seem, would 
veiy naturally accompany the history of the University to 
which, while living, he was so devoted, and whose interests 
he served so long and so efficiently. 

The writer of this sketch had known Dr. Welch during 
the preceding thirty years of his life, and for a great part of 
that time had enjoyed most intimate associations with him. 
At the period of his untimely and unexpected death he had 
attained his three-score years. He was an alumnus of Cen- 
tre College, of forty years' standing, in its day of prosperity'', 
received his theological training at New Albany, Indiana, 
and had been an ordained minister of the gospel during 
thirty-four years. After a brief term of service with the 
church in Helena, Ark., he was called to the pastorate of the 
First church, in Little Rock. Here, for nearty a quarter 
century, he labored with untii'ing devotion, and the result 
was that the strong attachment which he felt for the people 
was met, on their part, by a responsive devotion and love for 
him. In all their sj^iritual interests he was their trusted 
guide and counsellor. To liim they resorted for advice in 
perplexing questions of duty, and always found him pre- 



544 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

pared to direct them, careful to impress upon tliem always 
that in all their troubles and afflictions, while he was a sym- 
pathizing friend, they must trace all their deliverances to 
the God of all comfort. Sound and orthodox in his creed, 
he was instructive and faithful in his pulpit ministrations. 
Thoroughly skilled as a presbyter, he was an acknowledged 
leader in all questions of church poHty, and was remarkable 
for his executive ability. Hence it was not a matter of sur- 
prise that his reputation for the possession of these valuable 
qualities led to his election as Moderator of the Southern 
General Assembly in 18'72, He stood in the front rank of 
the ministerial corps of his Synod and Presbytery, and was 
recognized as a man of such practical wisdom as won for 
him universal confidence in regard to the public interests of 
the State and nation. 

In this connection the writer recalls an interesting state- 
ment made by one who had spent some time in Little Bock, 
and was familiar with the condition of affairs in the State 
during the troublous times of reconstruction, strikingly illus- 
trative of the modest, wise, and unobtrusive influence of Dr. 
"Welch upon public affairs. A congressional committee had 
been appointed to visit the State, with a view of investigat- 
ing the condition of feeling of the people toward the Gov- 
ernment of the Uinted States, and to report the result to 
Congress as a basis of legislation. The chairman of that 
committee visited Dr. Welch's church as a worshipper. Ob- 
serving him as a stranger, Dr. Welch accosted him cour- 
teously, as was his custom, assuring him of a cordial wel- 
come, and inviting him to attend divine service, with the 
certainty that he should always be shown to a comfortable 
seat whenever he mi<>ht attend. Disarmed bv such unex- 
pected attention, evidently disinterested, the stranger laid 
aside all prejudice, and during his stay in Little Rock sought 
opportunity to obtain from Dr. AVelch the needed informa- 
tion upon the subject of his mission. This was furnished 



Kev. Dr. Welch. 545 

by Dr. Welch in a manner that carried conviction of its 
truthfuhiess along with it, and, in connection with other in- 
fluences, led to the j^reiDaration and presentation of such a, 
report by that committee as to defeat entirely the object of 
the bitter partisans who had organized the movement, and 
ultimately resulted in a peaceful settlement of all public trou- 
ble. This fact is given as an illustration of the wise and 
judicious influence exerted by Dr. Welch, not only as a, 
Christian minister, but as a Christian patriot. 

His term of active service in Little Rock was brought to 
a close by alarming symptoms of dechning health, whick 
imperatively demanded a cessation of ministerial labor and 
a residence in a more genial climate. His capacity for ac- 
curate business matters suggested to influential friends in. 
government circles the idea of a temporary appointment to 
some office, the duties of which would not be onerous, and 
the location healthful. Accordingly, the appointment of 
United States Consul at the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Can- 
ada, tendered to him and accepted, seemed to promise all that 
was desired ; and for nearly a year there was the most grati- 
fying prospect of a complete restoration of health. Not- 
withstanding the almost constant service rendered by him 
to the Presbyterian people of that city in preaching to their 
large congregations, he continued to improve, and his friends 
were cheered by confident hopes that ho would ultimately 
regain his health, and liv^ to perform many years' sen-ice ta 
the church and to the world. The insidious disease of the 
heart still lurked in the system, and only awaited occasion 
to complete its fatal work. At a most unexpected and sud- 
den moment, at eleven o'clock of the Eight of Thursday, 
March 25th, ''the silver cord was loosed, the golden bowl 
was broken, the pitcher was broken at the fountain, and the 
wheel broken at the cistern," and the mysteriously-wroughti 
machinery was brought to a full stop. 

The work of hfe was done; the burden was laid down;. 
35 



546 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

the servant of God was called from labor to rest, having 
been faithful in every station assigned him in the providence 
of God ; having filled every relation binding him to others ; 
having met every obligation growing out of those relations, 
he had won the universal confidence of all with whom he 
had been associated. A devoted husband ; a generous and 
affectionate kinsman ; an upright, wise, and loyal citizen ; 
an instructive and scriptural minister of the gospel ; a man 
of most liberal spirit in all matters of Christian benevolence ; 
in a word, a man of God. He will long be missed and re- 
gretted in all these positions and relations. The church 
mourns the departure of one of her most efficient and trusted 
servants. The College at Batesville, Ark., and the Univer- 
sity at Clarksville, Tenn., of whose boards of trust he had 
been a prominent and valued member from their origin, 
have sustained an almost irreparable loss. It would seem 
that all over the Southwest, which was the scene of his hfe- 
work, the cry will s^Dontaneously go up, "Help, Lord, for 
the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the 
children of God." 



CHAPTEK LVII. 

Tilling Vacancies on the Boaed. — Withdrawal fkom the Boakd by 
Synod of Texas. — Sketches. — Failing Health and Kesignation 
OF Chancelloe. — Election of De. Heesman, and Inaugueation 
Exeecises. 

THE Synod of Arkansas proceeded to fill the vacancy in 
the Board, which was caused by the death of Dr. 
Welch, by the election of Rev. W. A. Sami^le, D. D., and the 
vacancy caused by the removal to Texas of Rev. Dr. Ray- 
mond, of Alabama, was filled by the appointment of Rev. 
J. M. P. Otts, as the representative of that Synod on the 
Board. It was during the session of 1886-87, at the fall 
meeting of the Synod of Texas, that this body resolved to 
sever its connection with the Southwestern Presbyterian 
University. Accordingly, on the roll of the Board, as pub- 
Hshed in the catalogue of that session, the number of co- 
operating Synods is reduced from six to five. The names of 
tw^o most beloved and highly-esteemed directors, and two 
whose ardent devotion and zealous, active work for its pros- 
perity had never been excelled, appear no more recorded 
upon our annual catalogue. Their absence from the annual 
meetings of the Board was a conspicuous event in our his- 
tory, as it was known to all our friends that, on no occasion 
of the assembly of the directors had either of them ever 
been absent, save when unable to attend by reason of sick- 
ness, and this had occurred on only a single occasion, in the 
case of Rev. Dr. King ; while, in the experience of the ven- 
erable Dr. W. K. Marshall, dating his membership from 
the very origin of the institution, his attendance at Clarks- 
ville was never known to fail. These gentlemen were sur- 

547 



548 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

rendered by us with the deepest regret, for the additional 
reason that their wisdom and experience contributed greatly 
to the estabHshment of those grand fundamental principles 
which lie at the basis of true Christian education, to which, 
indeed, this institution is so largely indebted for its sohd 
prosperity. A singular fact may be noted in this connec- 
tion, that neither of the directors from Alabama last elected 
was ever present at any meeting of the Board, occasioned 
by providential events and circumstances beyond their con- 
trol. 

The Universitj'' attained its highest number of attendant 
students during the session of 1886-87, the catalogue for 
this session exhibiting a total of one hundred and fifty. Of 
these, there were twenty-one divinity students, being an in- 
crease of five on the class of the preceding session. The 
Faculty of Arts was only so far changed as to have elected 
Mr. F. W. Morton, of Virginia, to fill the chair of adjunct in 
the departments vacated by the resignation of Professor 
Smylie. 

My health continued to grow more and more feeble during 
all the years that had passed from 1882, at which time the 
first symptoms of declind began to manifest themselves. I 
had visited during the vacations Waukesha Springs, and 
placed myself under the special medical treatment of distin- 
guished physicians in various parts of the country, and had 
used many remedies which were recommended, but all to no 
purjDose ; and this course of suffering continued for five ses- 
sions without the suspension of my official duties or my ab- 
sence from the University during the term. Often, how- 
ever, I found myself suffering much pain while in the dis- 
charge of the needed work of my department. This condi- 
tion of things continued until the opening of the session of 
1887-'88, when, after a struggle of about five weeks with 
the disease which I had fought for five years, I was forced 
to succumb. 



Eesignation of Chancellorship. 549 

Ou the 30th of Sei^tember, 1887, awaking- from a troubled 
sleei% I found myself so prostrate with fever and utter phy- 
sical inability, I abandoned all effort to work. Calling in 
our friend and family physician. Dr. McCaule}-, I was, from 
that day to the 25th of October, under his treatment for 
catarrh in a most aggravated form. On consultation with 
Dr. Wright, Dr. McCauley decided that I should at once 
withdraw from all work and responsibility in connection 
with the University, and that I should pass the winter in 
some Southern climate. To this decision I submitted, with 
the approval of the friends and colleagues most interested 
in the matter. As I learned subsequently, however, that 
my disease was incurable, in the opinion of the attending 
physicians, and that w^hile they admitted the possibility of 
an improvement in my case from change of climate, at the 
same time thej^ asserted, with some positiveness, that should 
I be sufficiently improved to resume work, the consequence 
of such a step on my part would be inevitable relai^se and 
fatal termination. Confiding imphcitly in their views, as to 
their wisdom and skill, on consultation with my devoted 
wdfe, I determined to tender to the Board of Directors my 
resignation of the office of chancellor, to take effect on Jan- 
uary 1st, or at the close of the current session, as might 
seem best for the interests of the University. 

The following is a copy of the resignation, one of the 
copies having been prepared and forwarded to each di- 
rector : 

" CLARKs^^LLE, Octohev 11, 1887. 
" Dear Brother : It is well known to the directors that 
my mind for several years has been much occupied with the 
severance of my connection with this institution. My 
•present failure of health makes it imperative that I should 
13resent to the Board individually the facts in the case, and 
I desire them to make known to me their views on this sub- 



550 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

ject as speedily as possible. After making an honest effort 
during the month of September to fulfill the duties and ob- 
ligations of my office, I find myself j)rostrated and unable 
to perform any duty. The Faculty, at the suggestion of my 
physicians, have divided my duties among them so that my 
teaching and clerical duties are being carried on by them. 

" Two physicians, in whose judgment I have confidence, 
decide that it is important in my condition that I should 
spend the winter in a climate less rigorous than this ; and 
it is also their opinion that should I recover sufficiently to 
resume my duties, I would again succumb. It is clearly 
my duty, under such circumstances, to tender my resigna- 
tion, to take effect in January, or at the end of the sessional 
year, according to your wish. I leave the choice of these 
alternatives to you, as it was the expressed wish of several 
members of the Board, that, even in case of failure of 
health, I should continue my connection with the institu- 
tion during the sessional year. 

" And nov/, in the Providence of God, I feel it my duty to 
tender my resignation, to take effect at such time as you 
may indicate. Eespectfully and truly, 

" Jno. N. Waddel." 

To this I received answers from the directors, accepting 
my resignation, which took effect at the close of the current 
session in June, 1888. On the 28th of October we arrived 
in Pensacola, Fla., and there, in the house and with the 
family of C. V. Thompson, who had married my youngest 
daughter, and had resided there for several years, we spent 
the winter, and left there on April 23, 1888. During these 
five or six months, I had been for the greater part of the 
time utterly prostrate in health. Under the blessing of 
God, upon the faithful and skilful nursing of my devoted 
wife, and the genial influence of the climate, my health be- 
gan to exhibit evidence of gradual improvement. On the 



Closing Incidents. 551 

23d of April, 1888, we turned our faces northward, and 
leaving Pensacola, reached Clarksville, after slight delaj^ in. 
visiting friends on the way, on May 1st. 

In the interval, at a special meeting of the Board of 
Directors held on March 21st, my resignation, which had 
been assented to individually, was formally accepted by the 
assembled Board, to take effect in June. At this meeting,. 
the Eev. C. C. Hersman, B. D., was unanimously choseix 
chancellor, w^hich he accepted. The period from May 1st 
to July 1st, we spent in Clarksville. The only event 
worthy of historical record occurring during these two 
months was the annual Commencement, which occupied th& 
five days from June 2d to 6th inclusive. The Board met 
and transacted the usual routine business on Saturda}^ 2d. 
On Sabbath evening, after an address of great eloquence hy 
Dr. Palmer, listened to with profound attention by an im- 
mense audience in the Presbyterian church, on the " Cen- 
tennial Memorial of the Origin of our Church in the United 
States ; " a collection, or rather a subscription, was taken,, 
which resulted in the sum of $6,000, as reported, for the ad- 
ditional endowment and general benefit of the Southwestern 
Presbyterian University. On the evening of Wednesday, 
6th, after the usual exercises on Monday, Tuesday and 
Wednesday mornings had been performed by speakers and 
others, the regular inauguration of the chancellor-elect, Dr. 
C. C. Hersman, w^as publicly attended to, and the keys of 
office, emblematic of his authority, were delivered to him, 
accompanied by a brief address from myself, to which Dr. 
H. responded in an elaborate discourse on " Denominational 
Education." 

I may be excused, I trust, for alluding to the following^ 
occurrence which closed the exercises of the evening, and 
with them, at the same time, brought the Commencement 
occasion to an end. As I sat on the rostrum after the inau- 
gural address of Dr. H. had been delivered, to my great 



652 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

surprise, I was personally addressed by Dr. Palmer in a 
speech of few but striking "thouglits that breathed, and 
words that burned," w^hich was accompanied by the un- 
veiling of a portrait of myself. This whole occurrence had 
Ibeen successfully concealed from me, and from the first con- 
cej)tion of it to the actual execution of the plan, I was kept 
profoundly in the dark. The portrait was executed and 
j)resented to the University, wholly at the expense of the 
artist, Mr. W. J. McCormick, of Clarksville. Thus ended 
my public connection with the Southwestern Presbyterian 
University, and since that occasion I have occupied the posi- 
tion of one among its warmest friends, and this humble 
j)lace I shall continue to fill so long as my life may endure. 



CHAPTEE LYIII. 

General Eeview. — What is a Christian Ixstittjtion ?— Closing Ee- 
flections on the subject of education. 

UPON a review of the liistoiy of the Southwestern Pres- 
b^^terian University there will be found one peculiarity 
belonging to it as an institution of learning, which cannot 
be claimed to the same extent by any other school of its 
<3lass within my knowledge. Its character and designation 
as a Christian school, and under the control and direction 
of the church, does not distinguish it from others in the 
8outh, which are entitled to the same description. But 
while all of them are understood to give to their general 
scope and design a genuine stamp of Christian instruction 
that 2)ervades the course of study, the method of disciphne, 
and the end in view, and while it is true that to a certain de- 
gree the Bible in some of these institutions is a text-book, 
I am not aware that in any of them the study of the Bible 
constitutes a regularly organized course of compulsory 
study, just as extensively as any other study prescribed in 
the various departments. While the institution is organ- 
ized upon the plan of coordinate schools and elective 
courses, the Biblical Department is as prominent a school 
as any one of the eight into which the University is dis- 
tributed. Moreover, while students are allowed to elect the 
course that they prefer, it is a fundamental rule that every 
student must enter the School of "Biblical Instruction;" 
and while in the courses pursued by candidates for the 
various degrees, provision is made whereby other studies 
may be omitted, it is a rigid exaction that the regular com- 
pletion of the entire Bible course shall be made by a candi- 

553 



554 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

date for any degree whatever conferred by tlie University,. 
In further statement of details on this point, it is to be 
noted that the Bible course embraces three classes, each re- 
quiring a full session for its completion, and each class is 
required to meet the jorofessor three hours weekly. 

It will aj)2)ear then, from this review, that the Universit}^ 
whose history I have been striving to present, maj^ indeed. 
claim, without arrogating anything extravagant in its pre- 
tensions, to be a genuine Christian school of learning, 
and that the Bible constitutes a regular text-book required 
to be provided by every student who enters and matriculates. 

It would seem a very natural decision reached by every 
Christian parent in this day, when there is such widespread 
agitation going on in our country of the question of the ex- 
clusion of the Bible from our public schools, that this insti- 
tution would be the chosen and safe place to which to en- 
trust their children, where they can, without any danger, 
receive a Christian training. I repeat that no reflection is 
intended upon the many excellent sister institutions of our 
church by these statements. But it seems only justice that 
the extent to which the Bible is taught in this University 
should be brought fully before the Christian public. 

In my retirement from personal connection with the edu- 
cational interests of the country, I trust I may not be con- 
sidered as presumptuously obtruding mj views, somewhat 
more 7n, extenso, upon this great subject, to which I have 
devoted so large a portion of my life, now somewhat pro- 
tracted. 

To those who can look back with the writer for more than 
half a century, there is nothing that is more remarkable in 
this review than the progress made in the system of public 
education in all parts of the country. This statement covers 
the ground in every respect, and embraces every particular 
which enters into this progress as an element. In the ex- 
tent of the system, in the advanced state especially of the 



Collegiate Studies. ^^^^ 

instruction in science in all deioartments consequent upon 
the immense discoveries in all sioheres of Iinowledge during 
the half century, now not far from its close, there is enough to 
excite the astonishment of every intelligent observer and of 
every reader of the past. This enlargement of the field of 
scientific education has grown to such an extent as to force 
upon some of our oldest and most prominent educators the 
discussion of the question of the elective system, and to re- 
sort to some expedient whereby only those studies intro- 
ducing men to the more i^ractical pursuits of life shall be 
assigned the chief place in the undergraduate course, and 
the classical languages either excluded or substituted by the 
modern languages. This has been done to considerable ex- 
tent in the Southwestern Presbyterian University ; and yet 
the ancient classical languages hold a large and important 
place in the course prescribed, and quite a goodly propor- 
tion of the students elect those old languages among those 
in their chosen schedule of study. It is, however, a great 
stimulus to this, that the full course in classical literature is 
required of all candidates for the degree of M. A. and B. A., 
and in B. Ph. the Latin language is required to some ex- 
tent. Altogether, the course of study in the colleges and 
universities has been wonderfully enlarged and extended, 
and doubtless much improved and elevated. The number 
of students who are now receiving a finished education, fit- 
ting them for the varied calhngs of life, is vastly increased. 
But we are by no means at the point of advancement to 
which we ought to aspire. Many of our best men are op- 
posed to the multiplication of colleges and seminaries of 
learning, upon the ground that they are multiiDhed beyond 
the actual necessity of the country, and that it would be in- 
finitely better that we should combine the various smaller 
institutions into one large University for the whole country. 
This view, it will be remembered, was put forward in 1861 
by some of our educators, but, as we have seen, was efiec- 



556 J. N. Waddel, B. D., LL. D. 

tually opposed by others. In the case of the Southwestern 
Presbyterian University, the field was narrowed down to the 
limits of six Southwestern Synods ; and the history of its 
progress and j^atronage demonstrates clearly that these 
limits are in an apparent- process of curtailment, and that 
the extent of its territory of patronage is yet to be con- 
tracted, and the source of strength and support is to be 
found nearer home. Texas has withdrawn from the direc- 
tory, and it had a perfect right so to do, having its own in- 
stitutions. Arkansas may be induced to do the same; and 
so may Alabama, not because of any want of kindly, frater- 
nal spirit, so much as a feeling, which is natural, and well- 
nigh universal, that each Synod should foster and promote 
its own institutions that are nearer to them. The fact is, 
that a mere cursory glance at the catalogue of the South- 
western Presbyterian University w-ill convince any reader 
that the patronage comes mainly, even oiow, from the States 
of Tennessee and Mississippi, included in the Synods of 
!Nashville, Memphis, and Mississippi. The motive that 
jDrompts and sustains such a tendency may be called by 
some selfish, but there are two facts that are closely con- 
nected with it w4iich give it plausibility at least. One is, 
that by increasing the number of educational institutions 
you increase the number of educated citizens, inasmuch as 
these institutions are brought within rer^ch of a greater 
number of persons who live near their location, thus curtail- 
ing the expenses of travel and of board. The other is, that 
it is the true interest of every good citizen to advance the 
education of his own immediate community or State. 

Under such circumstances, the immediate region over 
"which the Clarksville institution exerts an influence should 
rally to its support, and enable its working friends to carry 
into effect the great system of Christian education, of which 
it is one of the genuine representatives and zealous advo- 
cates. Thankful for patronage and friendly interest mani- 



Influence of the University. 557 

fested from other and distant States and communities, this 
University must look mainly to its own immediate region for 
co-operation and j)atronage. Nor is it too much to say, in 
behalf of the institution, that it has done in the past a great 
work for the church and the State, and is still engaged in 
its mission of diffusing the blessed influence of Christian 
education wherever its alumni have found their homes. Its 
roll of ministerial representatives in the gospel presents over 
fifty promising workers ; and if those who were sent forth 
from Stew^art College, the nucleus of the Southwestern Pres- 
byterian University, be added, the number will be found to 
reach more than sixty. They fill many churches of nine or 
ten of our Southern States. Six others have taken their 
lives in their hands, and have gone to the foreign field ; and 
two of them have laid down their lives in the work of preach- 
ing the gospel to the heathen. The patronage has been 
found, on the best attainable estimate, to have averaged, in 
twenty years, one hundred and sixteen in attendance an- 
nually; the smallest number in any session reaching sev- 
enty-one, and the largest attaining one hundred and fifty. 

At the close of my term of sei-vice the institution was un- 
der promising prospects of constant advance in usefulness, 
both in the school of divinity, and of literature, science, and 
art ; and were its material and financial status that wdiich its 
high claims meiit, its value would be equal to that of the 
foremost of the land. 

And now, in my retirement from the long and laborious 
work to which my life has been devoted, I would fain 
take kind leave of that public with which I have been asso- 
ciated for more than half a century. Looking back over 
these busy years, while I readily recall many occurrences 
that were sad, and many errors of judgment, and many of 
those weaknesses inseparable from human nature, I should 
be recreant to every sentiment of gratitude to God, and to 
the many noble and excellent friends who, under his guid- 



558 John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

ance, and as His instruments of loving-kindness and tender 
mercy, have given me their sympathy, did I not ackowledge 
their wise counsel, and their valued, effective and influential 
aid during my entire career. My brethren in the ministry, 
and laity of the church ; my pupils, of whom so many have 
succeeded in filling the highest positions of honor and use- 
fulness in church and State ; constituted the varied circles 
crowded with those who always held high place in my heart's 
warm affections and exalted esteem. To them have I turned 
in days of darkness, confident of that aid I needed in conso- 
lation and counsel ; and in those times of brightness when 
my humble efforts were crowned with success, equally confi- 
dent of their partial congratulations and approval — a confi- 
dence never too sanguine and never disappointed. 

Even in the instances of private, domestic affliction, 
which my heavenly ^Father has sent in his loving providen- 
tial dealings with me — dark and inscrutable as they seemed 
at the time of their occurrence — I was not forgotten by my 
devoted friends. Let me subjoin a voluntary tribute to my 
soldier boy, whose untimely end is recorded in the body 
of this memoir, on page 425. It is from the pen of my 
friend and former colleague, Professor J. K. Blake, of South 
Carolina : 

Killed by a fragment of shell from tlie enemy, at Jonesboro', 
Ga., on tbe 1st day of September, 1864, 

JOHN GEAY WADDEL, 

youngest sou of Eev. J. N. Waddel, D. D, The deceased was born 
in Jasper county, Miss., on the 21st of January, 1847, and enlisted as 
a volunteer in the Army of Tennessee, on the 23d of January, 1864, 
being then just seventeen years old. In the ardor of his youthful 
enthusiasm, stimulated by a generous love for his suffering country, 
he cheerfully forsook the endearments of his loved family circle for 
the hardships and trials of the camp, resolved to sacrifice, if need be, 
life itself in defence of the truth and the right; and manfully did he 



Further Bereavements. 559 

execute this youtlifiil resolution. Amid all the trials of this perilous 
position he illustrated the model soldier. Quick and sprightly in his 
intellect, amiable and gentle in his disposition, generous and noble in 
his impulses, he was beloved by all who knew him ; and to his be- 
reaved family and friends, a recollection, dearer than all else, is that 
he was a child of the covenant, dedicated to God in his infancy, and 
though he had not joined the church, he left satisfactory evidence 
that he had made his peace with God. 

To his honored parent we offer our tenderest Christian sympathies. 
Bereft as he is of wife, and home, and property, he is now called to 
mourn the loss of his youngest born— his Benjamin. Out of the 
depths of this desolation may be seen the goodness and mercy of God 
in appointing unto his darling boy thus to die— to die young, that his 
life might be comparatively spotless and pure ; to die a sacrifice to his 
country, that his name might be loved and honored ; to die a Chris- 
tian, that he might secure the crown of endless felicity. J. E. B. 

A like grief I was called to endure long after the close of 
the civil war, in the loss of my only surviving son, George, 
who, after having passed through that fearful war scourge 
which occasioned the desolation, physical and moral, and, to 
a certain extent, spiritual, of our country, at the age of 
twenty-one entered the Sophomore Class of the University, 
in 1865, at the beginning of my admmistration as chancellor, 
and was graduated in the class of 1868. He had made a 
profession of rehgion during the war, m camp, and had con- 
nected himself with the Presbyterian church. After gradua- 
tion, he first turned his attention to teaching, in which occu- 
pation he did not long contmue to take much interest, as he 
preferred a more active hf e ; and, being fond of engineeiing, 
he entered upon that sort of business, under my friend and 
former coUeag-ne, Colonel J. L. Meigs, chief engineer of the 
Memphis and Little Eock railroad, in Arkansas. Losing his 
health, he left the line of the railroad, and took position in 
the office under Col. Meigs, in Memphis, and subsequently 
superintended bridge-building on the Paducah and Memphis 
railroad. Work on all these roads being suspended, he 
joined a small company of young men who went to Texas to 



560 John N. Waddel, D. T>., LL. D. 

get into some employment. While lie resided there, and 
undergoing much privation of various kinds, I was much 
surprised to receive from him a most remarkable letter, de- 
tailing the exercises of his mind under what he was con- 
vinced was a call to the gosj)el ministry. Our correspond- 
ence on this subject consisted of an earnest injunction, on 
my part, to him, to study this solemn question prayerfully 
and deliberately, and pointing out to him the various topics 
upon which he should conduct this self-examination to make 
his decision in view of the responsibility he owed to the all- 
seeing Master. The result was that he was soon after re- 
ceived as a candidate for the ministry, under care of the 
Presbytery of West Texas, spent two sessions as a theologi- 
cal student in Union Seminary; and having been licensed to 
preach by his Presbytery, while at the Seminary he spent 
many Sabbaths preaching at vacant points. He left the 
Seminary in March, 1878, and passed through Memphis on 
his way to Texas to meet his Presbytery. He spent a Sab- 
bath and preached in the Lauderd ale-street church, to which 
I was then ministering. He was ordained at that spring- 
meeting of West Texas Presbyter}-; married Miss Fannie 
Brownson, of Victoria, and at once removed to San Saba, as 
his first place of residence, as an evangelist. He remained 
in Texas some years, and removed, by invitation, to some 
feeble churches in Arkansas, where he led a most laborious 
life as an evangelist for two years. Thence he w^as invited 
and accepted the call to Batesville, Ark., and took part in the 
instruction of the Arkansas College, under the presidency of 
Dr. Long, and, at the same time, was stated supply of the 
church in that place. While he was residing there, in the 
month of November he was attacked with the disease that 
ended his life. In a visit which I was permitted to pay him 
in January, I advised him to spend the winter in Florida, 
which he did. On his way lie spent a short time in New 
Orleans, and my brethren, Drs. Palmer and Markham, paid. 



Death of George. 561 

liim every attention. The eminent surgeon, Dr. Richardson, 
calhng by the request of his pastor, Dr. Pahner, and exam- 
ining the case, pronounced it to be malignant tumor of the 
intestines, from which he could not recover; that death 
might occur at any time, but that he might live, at most, a 
year longer. A relative of his wife, who wrote me an ac- 
count of his case, reported that on the announcement of this 
opinion of the physician, he simply remarked, calmly, " Well, 
I am in the hands of my Saviour ; let Him do with me what 
seemeth to Him good." He reached Pensacola safely, and, 
after spending six weeks or more with his sister, Mrs. 
Thompson, the wife of Charles V. Thompson, his war asso- 
ciate and friend, with varied symptoms of alternate ease and 
suffering, he sank so rapidly that I received a dispatch from 
Mr. Thompson to the effect that I must come at once if I 
desired to see him alive. I was then living at Clarks-sille, 
and, leaving by the earliest train, I reached his bedside in. 
time to spend five days with him, as he had ralhed from the 
sinking spell. He had no idea of recovery whatever, but 
was in constant expectation of the final summons. We had 
precious seasons of communion, b}" conversation and reading 
the blessed Word. I found in him no appearance of reluc- 
tance to depart, no alarm at the prospect of death ; but 
while there was no appearance of rapture or exultation, all 
was calm and peaceful acquiescence in God's will. So it 
continued imtil Sabbath morning at one o'clock, when he 
breathed his life sweetly and quietly away, to enter into his 
eternal rest. 

Many and precious were the testimonials of affectionate 
regard and high esteem which I received from his friends 
and associates who knew and loved him while living, and 
lamented him, now departed. I select from them two, one 
from his beloved and admired theological teacher, Dr. R. L. 
Dabney ; the other from his classmate in the University of 
Mississippi, the eminent Bishop C. B. Galloway : 
36 



562 John N. Waddel, D. D., IjL. D. 

Dr. Dabney's Letter. 
University of Texas, April 26, 1885. 
Hei). John X. Waddel, D. I). : 

Dear Brother: It was witli mingled grief and surprise 
ihat I read of the occasion of 3-our sad visit to Pensacola. I 
liad not heard of your son's sickness, and I had been think- 
ing of him only as prospering in that onward career of 
health, influence, and increasing strength which I had 
learned to associate with him in Texas. He was a cherished 
and valued j)upil. I have befoi'e me, with perfect distinct- 
ness, his gentle, manly, modest, and Christian deportment, 
and his solid attainments. The teacher ought to die before 
the pupil. He was young and strong ; I am becoming old 
and shattered. Did we not have the assurance of our hea- 
venly Teacher's wisdom and love, the cutting off of such 
lives would be mysteries too painful to endure. But He has 
said, by our Christ, "What I do thou knowest not now, but 
thou shalt know hereafter." I need hardly say that you 

have my most profound sympathies in your trial 

Faithfully yours, etc., 

["Signed] K. L. Dabney. 

Bishop Galloway's Letter. 

New Orleans, La., AijHI 23, 1885. 
My Dear Friend and Brother : In looking over my ex- 
changes this evening, my eye falls upon a sad announcement 
in the columns of the Southioestern Presbyterian from your 
pen. Alas ! how inscrutable the Providence, that one so vig- 
orous and useful should thus early fall on sleep. George, as 
you know, was my classmate, and one of my most intimate 
friends. His unswerving friendship, genial sx)irit, kindness 
of disposition, sparkling humor, and manly honor are among 
the prized memories of my University days. We all recog- 
nized in him superior ability, though infirm health prevented 
constant attention to study. It gave me great pleasure to 



Closing EEFLECTioNa 563 

hear of his entering the ministry, and to learn of his grow- 
ing usefulness and success. But the grave has disappointed 
fondest expectations. That he passed so peacefully into 
" the valley of the shadow " is the divinest comfort. We can 
suffer bereavement when attempered with such sweet conso- 
lation. I sympathize tenderly in your sorrow ; but for you 
the separation will not be long. And in tendering some 
feeble words of condolence, I want to thank my dear old 
chancellor for a thousand blessings vouchsafed to me through 

his words and example 

Your friend and former student, 

[Signed] Charles B. Galloway. 

But it is time for me to close these reminiscences, and to 
leave on record my best wishes for the temporal, spiritual, 
and eternal welfare of all those who have said, thought, and 
done so many kind things to me, about me, and for me and 
mine during my sojourn in this world, in the multiplied and 
varied fields of labor and scenes of association which, in 
God's gracious providence, have been assigned to me as my 
lot in life. No longer engaged in presiding over institutions 
of learning and directing their operations for the advance- 
ment of the education of the young men of the land, I am 
still enabled to dwell in quiet enjoyment of much that may 
render life desirable and valuable, even to advanced age. I 
thank the gracious Giver of every good and perfect gift that 
there is yet vouchsafed to me the ability to preach, in an 
humble way, the blessed gospel of the Son of God, and to 
pray, with earnest heart and devout spirit, for the conver- 
sion of sinners, and for the growth in grace and the edifica- 
tion of the church. Surely should I bless God that I have 
been j)ermitted to behold the wondrous advance of the 
world in eveiy department of Christian civilization ; in sci- 
ence, statesmanship, invention, discovery, and, above all, the 
openmg of " the dark places of the earth, which are full of 



564 John N. Waddel, D. D , LL. D. 

tlie habitations of cruelty," and the shedding into them of the^ 
light of divine truth, borne by the hands of the thousands 
of devoted missionaries of the cross. Never was there such 
a day of good things witnessed on this earth before ! While, 
therefore, the powers of darkness are awake, and massing 
their forces for a fearful warfare against the truth, and wick- 
edness " is abroad in terrible array," yet it is the trust un- 
shaken of the soldier of the cross, that when the conflict is 
joined the issue is not doubtful, but the victory shall be de- 
clared in the destruction of the enemy and in the establish- 
ment of "the new heavens and the new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness ! '* 



APPENDIX. 



No. 1. 



Correspondence on the Subject of the Professorship of Pas- 
toral Theology and Church Polity in the Theological 
Seminary at Danville, Ky. 



Buffalo, Mmj 30, 1854. 

Itev. John JST. Waddel^ D. D. : 

Rev. and Dear Sir : The undersigned have gratification to 
inform you that, as a committee appointed by the General 
Assembly, we have been selected to certify you that, on the 
29th inst., you were unanimously elected (one vote only to 
the contrary) by that venerable body to fill the chair of 
Church Government and Pastoral Theology in the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Danville, Ky. , We take great pleasm^e 
in transmitting to j^ou the above intelligence, and cannot 
but indulge the fondly cherished hope that you will gratify 
your brethren of the Assembly, and those of the Southwest 
generally, in accepting the exalted station to which you 
have been so unanimously called. 

Your brethren in the Lord, 

[Signed] John T. Edgar, 

R. B. McMuLLiN, 
C. S. Palmore. 

B. 

The undersigned members of the General Assembly met 
at Buffalo from the Presbyteries of the Southwest, feel great 
gratification at, and contributed to the election of Rev. Dr. 
J. N. Waddel to the professorship of Pastoral Theology and 
Church Pohty in the Theological Seminary at Danville, Ky. 
We feel great personal interest in his acceptance of the 

565 



566 Appendix. 

office tendered liim witli so much unanimity, and trust that 
he "will take the call of the church as the call of Divine 
Providence, and consent to accept, with other dear brethren 
already in the institution, a part of the responsibility and 
gratification of building up a great seminary in the South- 
west. And in order that he may feel an assurance of all 
necessary support, we express the conviction that the neces- 
sary endowment for the support of this professorship may 
soon be collected in those departments of the church which 
we represent, and we further add that we will contribute ta 
this object by all the influence we can exert. 
[Signed] 

WrnL WmLUMsj •^«%««'-y o/yashmUe. 
Alexander Smith, Presbytery of Maury. 
R. R. Evans, Presbytery of Memphis. 
Jahleel Woodbridge, Presbytery of Louisiana. 
H. M. Painter, Presbytery of Mississippi. 
J. E. C. DoREMus, Presbytery of Jjouisiana. 
R. B. McMuLLiN, Presbytery of Knoxville. 
J. H. Lorance, Presbytery of Tuscumbia. 
J. M. Cochran, Presbytery of West Texas, 
S. J. P. Anderson, Presbytery of /St Xouis. 
W. H. Pawling, Independence, Mo. 
James Park, Presbytery of Holston. 

C. 

Individual Communications on the Same Topic. 

Nashville, June 22, 1854. 
Rev). Dr. Waddel: 

My Dear Brother: I reached home last evening, and 
hasten to acknowledge your communication to me of the 
13th inst. I am sorry that, owing to my detention in Ken- 
tucky, and consequent delay in reaching home, I have been 
prevented from responding to your letter to me until this 
date. It would have afforded still greater pleasure than I 
have felt on arriving at my home, to have received from you 
an answer to the official note which I forwarded to you 
from Buffalo, more satisfying than the one I have received, 
viz., that you felt it your duty to accept the professorship 
tendered to you so unanimously by your brethren at Buffalo. 
Yes, so unanimously, for in all my life I have never known 



i 



Appendix. 567 

an instance of more united and harmonious sentiment and 
action, touching any matter connected -with the church or 
government of God's Providence. But perhaps I ought 
not to have exj^ected a more favorable reply than the one 
you have so promptly and kindly sent me. 

Be assured, my dear brother, that not only myself, but all 
your brethren in the Southwest, are ardently desirous that 
you will feel it your duty, in the j^rovidence of God, to fill 
the chair in the seminary, which thus far has been so sig- 
nally prosperous and promising. 

In a convention held by a large number of brethren, an- 
terior to your nomination in the Assembly, an almost unani- 
mous expression was given by them all that you, of all men 
in our portion of Zion, were the man best endowed and best 
qualified to fill the station then to be filled by your assem- 
bled brethren at Buffalo. 

It seemed to me, as it did to them, that an expression so 
harmonious, and so unanimous, ought to be considered by 
you as an unequivocal call from the Great Head of our be- 
loved church for your services in one of his schools of the 
prophets. But I will not doubt that, upon more mature re- 
flection, you will feel constrained, after making more fre- 
c[uent supplications to the throne of grace for direction, to 
accede to the wishes of your brethren. 

May God bring you to such a decision as shall be for His. 
own glory and the best interests of the seminary, established 
under his superintending providence. Please let me hear 
from you as soon as your mind will allow you, in regard to 
the question of your acceptance, in order that I may make 
known through the press to your brethren, whether their 
choice of you has met your sanction, or otherwise. 

In haste, but very truly and affectionately, your brother 
in Christ, 

John T. Edgak. 

From Dr. Humphrey. 

Steamer Fashion, near Cairo, III., 
June 1, 1854 
Rev. Jno. JST. Waddel, D. I), : 

Kev. and Dear Sir : Just before my departure from Louis- 
ville for St. Louis, I received the intelligence of your elec- 
tion to a professorship in the Danville Theological Seminary 



668 Appendix. 

hy the General Assembly. Permit me to say in this hurried 
way, that this action of the Assembly has been taken, not 
only with the concurrence, but under the advice of the im- 
mediate friends of the seminary, including the Faculty, 
directors, etc. For myself, I assure you of a warm welcome 
should the providence of God open the way for your re- 
moval to Danville. You will have in detail from Dr. Breck- 
enridge the position of the whnle affair. The endowment 
of the professorship to which you are elected is to be raised 
in the Southwest. The only question was, whether you 
should be appointed in advance of the endowment, or after 
it was secured. The Assembly, it seems, has judged it best 
to make the appointment now, with the belief, no doubt, 
that 3^our election would secure the endowment forthwith. 

I hope, my dear sir, that j'ou will be led, in the providence 
of God, to go to Danville, and take part in the great and 
hopeful w^ork we have in hand. I have received only a tele- 
graphic notice of your election, with no particulars. This 
fact, and the confusion of a steamboat, must excuse the 
meagreness of this note. 

I shall return to Louisville in the course of three weeks, 
•when I shall be happy to hear from you. 
Very truly and respectfully, 

Edward P. Humphrey. 

From Dr. Edgar. 

Nashville, J'ulu 10, 1854. 
'Dr. Waddel: 

My Dear Brother : Yours of the 29th ultimo reached me 
last night, and I hasten this morning to acknowledge its re- 
ception. I should be very sorry if you thought, from my 
last to you (containing the official announcement of Dr. 
Edgar as Moderator of the Assembly), that I wished jou to 
come to a decision as to your filling our vacant chair at 
Danville before the most mature deliberation on j^our part 
had taken place. No, my dear brother, if anything I wrote 
left such an impression on your mind, rest assured it was 
not so intended, but was the result of my anxiety to have an 
answer from you, which I might soon publish, telling my 
brethren that you had accepted your appointment, thus 
giving joy in both our Synods, Kentucky and Nashville. I 
shall take no steps in the matter until I hear from you again. 



Appendix. 569 

^when I hope to be able to say to all concerned that you have 
accepted the chair assigned you. 

In haste, but affectionately vours, J. T. Edgar. 



^ No. 2. 
-Correspondence on the Occasion of my Resignation of the 
Chancellorship of the University of Mississippi. 

A. 

Resolutions of the Board of Trustees. 

Oxford, July 27, IST-l. 

Whereas the Rev. John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D., for 
nine years the honored Chancellor of the University of Mis- 
sissippi, did, on the 26th ultimo, tender to the Board of 
Trustees the resignation of his office ; and whereas, in com- 
pliance with the earnest entreaty of the Board, he has kept 
his final decision under consideration for tho space of one 
month, with no change of purpose, and without consenting 
to revoke said resignation : therefore, 

jResolved, 1, That the Board feel constrained, however 
much they regret his decision, to accept his resignation. 

Resolved, 2, That we hereby express our high ajDprecia- 
tion of the great moral worth, and of the learniug, talents, 
and executive ability, of the retiring chancellor. 

Hesolved, 3, That we tender to him our most hearty 
thanks for the able and efficient manDerin which he has for 
so many j-ears presided over the University, and discharged 
the delicate and responsible duties of his office. 

Hesolved, 4, That we hereby express our sincere wish that 
his steps may be guided in the paths of usefulness and 
honor in the future, as in the past. 

B. 

Dr. Garland's Note Accompanying the Resolutions of the 
Faculty on the Same Occasion. 

Unh'ersity of Mississippi, October 9, 1874. 
7>r. Waddel: 

My Dear Sir : I take much pleasui'e in forwarding to you 
the accompanying extract from the journal of the Faculty. 



570 Appendix. 

Allow me to add that no exj)ressiou of the Faculty, collec- 
tively, can convey to you the regret that I indimdually feel 
in partinof with you. With the prayer that God may render 
your life long and useful and happy, I am truly yours, 
[Signed] L. C Garland, 

Secretary of the Faculty. 

Besolutions of the Faculty of the University. 

The committee appointed to report a minute in reference 
to the retiring Chancellor beg leave to submit the following 
action : 

Whereas the Eev. John N. Waddel D. D., LL. D., the 
honored Chancellor of the University, and the executive or- 
gan of the Faculty, did, on the 26th of Jane last, tender to 
the Board of Trustees his resignation of the office of Chan- 
cellor, which he had so long and so honorably filled ; and 
whereas the trustees, after earnest endeavors to prevail on 
said Chancellor to withdraw his resignation, did accept the 
same, so that he is now no longer a member of this Faculty : 
therefore, 

Mesolved, 1, That we hereby express our high api^recia- 
tion of the ability and faithfulness with which our late 
Chancellor discharged his delicate and arduous duties. 

Resolved, 2, That it is with sincere regret that we part 
with one with whom w^e have been so long and so pleasantly 
associated in the management of the educational interests 
of the University. 

Resolved, 3, That our late j^residing officer has our best 
wishes for his future usefulness and happiness. 
Respectfully submitted, 

[Signed] James A. Lyon, ) 

J. L. Johnson, |- Committee. 
F. A. Juny, ) 

On motion, the above report was unanimously approved 
and ordered to be spread upon the journal, and the secretary 
instructed to furnish a copy of the same to Dr. J. N. AVaddel. 

University of Mississippi, October 9, 1874. 
I do hereby certify that the above is a true copy from the 
journal of the Faculty. 

[Signed] L. C. Garland, Recordiyig Secretary 



Appendix. 571 

Resolutions of the Students of the Mississippi University, 

Adopted on the Same Occasion. 

Rev. John N. Waddel, D. D., LL. D. 

The committee appointed at a previous meeting of the 
students of the University of Mississippi to report suitable 
resolutions relative to the departure of our late Chancellor 
submitted the following preamble and resolutions, which 
were unanimously adopted, viz. : 

Whereas our tjeloved Chancellor, Rev. John N. Waddel, 
D. D., LL. D., has seen fit to resign the position of Chan- 
cellor of the University, over which he has so long and faith- 
fully presided ; and whereas the said Chancellor did, on the 
10th instant, take formal leave of us all in a short address, 
replete with affectionate and wise counsel : therefore, be it 

Resolved, 1, That we deeply regret the loss from this in- 
stitution of so good and great a man. 

Mesolved, 2, That we take great pleasure in recording the 
fact that Dr. Waddel has been to us not only an able and 
faithful instructor, but a loving and affectionate father. 

Resolved, 3, That we do hereby tender to Dr. AVaddel 
the most cordial feelings of friendship and high esteem with 
which we have ever regarded him, and which will remain 
undiminished and unchanged. 

JResolred, 4-, That we take this method to convey to Dr. 
"Waddel our heartfelt wishes for the long continuance of hi& 
health, success, and happiness, as well as that of his family, 
and that the blessing of a kind Providence may attend him 
in the new field of operations to which he has been invited, 
and which he has accepted. 

Resolved, 5, That copies of these resolutions be transmit- 
ted to Dr. Waddel, General A. Po Stewart (his successor), 
the trustees, and the Faculty, and that the journals of Mem- 
phis, Tenn., and of this State, friendly to the institution 
and to the cause of education in general, be requested to 
publish the same. 
[Signed] E. E. Bigger, Lewis Green, Jr , 

Charles H. Leonard, Louis L. McInnis, 

Wm. Addison Alexander, John F. Rm:s, Jr., 
Sam'l a. Witherspoon, 

Committee. 

University of Mississipjn, October 13, 1874. 



■572 Appendix. 

No. 3. 

It is recorded in the latter pages of the body of this me- 
moir that I transmitted the communication of my resigna- 
tion of Chancellor of the Southwestern Presbyterian Uni- 
versity to individual members of the directory on the 11th 
of October, 1887, and this course I pursued because the ne- 
cessity for it occurred at a season of the year when it would 
have been exceedingly difficult to bring the members of the 
Board together at Clarksville, and I felt bound to make 
known the fact wdthout delay. Some of the Board being at 
hand, to them I could communicate this decision personally, 
but others were absent from home ; hence I have but a -part 
of the rej^lies which I had expected. The formal accej)tance 
of my resignation was not made known to me officially until 
late in March, 1888, after the Board had held a special 
meeting to select a successor. In the interim I received the 
following letters from individual directors, w-ho were then in 
office, which I propose to insert, as somewhat more personal 
than a formal and official reply to my paper, and cherished 
among my most precious memorials of private association 
and friendship. 

Pefs^ate Letters BECErvEo from iNDr^iDUAL Members or the 
Directory on the Occasion of my Besignation of the 
Office of Chancellor of the Southwestern Presbyte- 
rian University. 

A. 

Letter from Eev. B. M. Palmer, D. B., LL. D. 

New Orleans, La., October 31, 1887. 
My Bear Br. Waddel : I have just returned home from a 
trip to New York, and find your letter of the 11th, so painful 
in its contents. I had sincerely hoped that your anticipa- 
tions of failing health would not be realized, and that \o\\. 
would be spared to the University at least a few years longer. 
But if the fatal necessity is upon you of resigning your im- 
portant and resj^onsible office as Chancellor, we can only 
mourn while we submit to a decree which we have no power 

to resist And now, venerable and dear brother, 

how shall I express the sorrow which I feel in the contem- 
plation of your withdrawal. It is not so much for you I 
mourn as for ourselves. If " the house of your tabernacle " 



Appendix. 573 

be tumbling into ruin, you have the better portion beyond, 
" the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 
But how can we do without you ^ The answer on your lips 
will be, that " no man is necessary to the Lord's work, and 
that " He who raised you up can supply the gap." Be it so ; 
but who does not dread the transfer, with all the uncer- 
tainty of the change, added to our sense of personal loss and 
bereavement? May God's blessing rest upon your head 
and heart in this hour of common affliction to }ou and to us, 
and give us both grace to accept His will as the fanal ex- 
pression of his goodness and love ! 

Ever affectionately and truly yours, _ ^^ ^ 

[Signed] B. M. Palmer. 

B. 

Letter from Rev. J. N. Craig, D. D. 

Atlanta, Ga., October 14, 1887. 

Dr. Waddel: , . , . . , n t 

My Dear Brother : Yours of 11th mst. is to hand. I am 
very sorry to hear of your indisposition, and that you tee! 
called upon to lay your resignation before the Board.. 
AUow me a few words personally— no flattery, of course. 
No man has any capacity but that which God has givejK 
and no man will use his gifts aright unless God leads him 
to do so by His grace. But I thank God for the capacity 
and the grace which he He has bestowed upon you, and for 
the long, useful, and honorable life He has permitted you to- 
lead. Sly acquaintance with you has been one of the bless- 
ings and^ni of the joys of my life. My only boy is m 
your institution. If the Lord will make him to be such as 
yourself, I could not desire more. . -, n 

^ i hope your usefulness is yet to last for a considerable 
time, but the Lord will order and scheme or you as He 
sees to behest; and whatever awaits you will surely be of 
the ''aU things " which are working together for your good. 

sincere prayers will follow you and Mrs Waddd May our 
Father ^vi her grace for her future, whatever it may be. 
Sincerely your friend, 
[Signed] J- N- C«^^- 



574 Appendix. 

C 

Letter from G. W. Macrae, Esq. 

Memphis, Tenn., October 13, 1887. 
300 Front Street. 
Hev. John N. Waddel, Clarksville, Tenn. : 

De.ar Doctor: Frequent reports of your serious illness 
have reached me during the past ten days, and have given 
me much concern. Your letter of the 11th inst., received 
this morning, seems to confirm the truth of them. It 
grieves me to be obhged to consider the matter of your 
resignation at all, sensible as I am of the value of your 
name and services to the institution. And yet I know you 
would not offer it unless, after careful deliberation, you be- 
lieved it to be your duty to do so. 

Rest and recreation will, no doubt, da much to restore 
your health and strength. I have no doubt that a sojourn 
during the winter months in a wanner climate will be of 
much service to you, and I think you should avail yourself 
of it. I hope you may soon be well enough to make the 
trip. "With best wishes, and with the hope that you may 
be restored and spared many years among us, 
I remain your friend and brother, 

[Signed] G. W. Macrae. 



Letter from Bev. Joseph Bardwell, D. D. 

Yazoo City, Miss., Octobe?- 14, 1887. 
Mev. J. N. Waddel, D. D., Clarksville, Tenn. : 

My Dear Brother: Your letter of the 11th reached me 
to-day. I am truly sorry to hear of the feeble state of 
your health, and deeply sympathize with you. As to your 
resignation, I am prepared to sa}^ for myself ^ that I desire 
to keep that matter in abeyance for the present. Let it lie 
over at least till the end of the sessional term. I am un- 
willing to have you sever your connection with the Univer- 
sity at least prior to the meeting of the Board. And even 
then, I would fain hope the necessity may not require it. 

By all means follow the advice of your physicians and 
seek a less rigorous climate for the winter. 

In a few words, I desire your connection with the Univer- 



Appendix. 575 

sity to continue through the present sessional term 

If, in the Providence of God, the necessity shall be laid 
upon us next June to consider j^our resignation, we will 
then endeavor to meet the responsibility, asking for divine 
guidance. 

I assure you, my dear brother, you will carry with you 
the affection and sympathy and prayers of every member of 
the Board. Ma}^ the Great Head of the church direct and 
bless you and yours. 

Sincerely and fraternally, 

[Signed] Joseph Baet^well. 



Communications from the Board of Directors at a Special 
Meeting held March 21, 1888. 

A. 

Official Note from the Secretary of the Board. 

Clarksville, March 23, 1888. 
Rev. J. N. Waddel, D. D. : 

My Dear Brother : I wu'ed you this morning the action 
of the Board, that Dr. Hersman was unanimously elected 
Chancellor, and Dr. Shearer vice chancellor; they also 
named the theological chair " The Palmer Professorship of 
Theology," and unanimously adopted the paper of which I 
enclose a copy, expressive of their feelings on accepting 
your resignation. AVe were aU glad to hear of your im- 
proved health, and will be glad to see, and will expect you at 
the time you name. Your resignation was accepted to take 
effect after June Commencement, and jour salary continues 
to that date. Kind regards to Mrs. Waddel. 
Yours veiy truly, 
[Signed] D. N. Kennedy, Secretary. 

B. 

Report of a Committee Appointed to Prepare a Minitte 
UPON the Resignation of Rev. Dr. J. N. Waddel as 
Ch.ancellor of the Southwestern Presbyterian IJNrv'ER- 
sity. 

In accepting the resignation of the chancellorship of the 
Southwestern Presbyterian University by Rev. John N. 



576 Appendix. 

Wadclel, D. D., LL. D., the Board of Directors desire to 
put on record their sense of loss in this bereavement, and at 
the same time to express their gratitude to God that this 
institution has been permitted to enjoy his valued services 
during the most critical, because the forming period, of its 
history. It was a most gracious providence when the Uni- 
versity was first established and launched upon its career,, 
that this venerable teacher, whose whole life had been de- 
voted to the higher education of young men, as by ancestral 
association he had been bound to it, even from his birth, 
should be at hand to guide it on its earliest career. 

During the nine years in which he has presided over its 
fortunes, his administration has been exceptionally success- 
ful and fortunate, leaving upon it the impression of his own 
character and influence, by which, as we hope, it will be dis- 
tinguished through coming time. And if the declining 
health, which compels the resignation, should prove to be 
the disrobing for the eternal rest, we congratulate our 
brother that his last work on earth should be so conspicu- 
ously his best w^ork rendered to the church of God, in 
that educational sphere to which he has been consecrated 
throughout life. 

Painful and sad as this separation may be to him, and to 
us, and irreparable as the loss may now apj)ear to this insti- 
tution, we cannot but rejoice in the grateful applause with 
which his long and useful life closes on earth. 

Successive generations will rise up to bless his memory, of 
those whom he has trained for honor and usefulness, whilst 
the greater reward awaits him in the benediction of the last 
day, " Well done good and faithful servant, enter thou into 
the joy of thy Lord I " In entering this minute in these 
records, and in transmitting a copy to Dr. Waddel, this 
Board tender to him their respectful and loving sympathy in 
all the bodily distress with which humanity is so generally 
ordained to terminate, as well as to assure him of the last- 
ing remembrance with which his name will be cherished, as 
it is embalmed in the history of the University. 

Our constant and fervent prayer is that his end may be 
peace, and his reward great in the kingdom of heaven. 
[Signed] 

D. N. Kennedy, Secretary. 



Appendix. 577 

Note of Professor G. F. Nicolassen, Secretary of the Fac- 
ulty, ACCOMPANYINO A CoPY OF THE AcTION OF THAT BoDY 

ON Occasion of the Resignation of the Chancellor. 
Clarksville, April 5, 1888. 
My Dear Dr. Waddel : It affords me very great pleasure 
to send you a copy of the paper adopted by the Faculty this 
afternoon. It was drawn up by Dr. Price, and cordially en- 
dorsed bv us all. The minute will be entered oq our record 
book, and a co]iv will be sent to the church and town papers. 
Very truly" [Signed] G. F. Nicolassen. 

C. 

Action of the Faculty of the Southwestern Presbyterian 
University. 

In view of the retirement of Dr. J. N. Waddel from the 
chancellorship of this institution, we desire, as a Faculty, to 
place on record an expression of our regret at the dissolution 
of the relations which have so happily subsisted between 
him and us during a number of years, our high esteem for 
him as an executive officer and instructor, and our love for 
him as a friend. 

The obligations of this institution to Dr. Waddel cannot 
be fully estimated. Coming into office, as he did, at the 
commencement of its organization as a University, he has 
done much towards developing its system and imparting to 
it an elevated Christian spirit. His extraordinary influence 
over young men has been largely the cause of the high 
standard of morality and college honor which has been main- 
tained by the student body, while his great reputation 
throughout the whole South has secured the confidence of 
the public in the worth and success of the institution. To 
him, as the presiding officer and our associate in the Fac- 
ulty, we feel that we owe, in no small measure, the unbroken 
harmony which has prevailed in our body. His unassuming, 
just, and conciliatory bearing would have rendered dissen- 
sions impossible, even if the occasion for them had arisen. 

As he retires from us, to spend, as we trust, a season of 
rest, well-earned by his laborious and useful life, we dehght 
to render him this unanimous tribute of our veneration and 
affection, and to pray that he may yet live to enjoy many 
years of comfort and of usefulness. 

[Signed 1 G. F. Nicolassen, Secretary. 

37 



)78 Appendix. 



D. 



Action of the Students of the Southwestern Presbyterian 
University on the Occurrence of the Seventy-fifth 
Birthday of the Chancellor. 

It became known among the students that the 2ncl day of 
April, 1887, would mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of the 
birthday of Rev. J. N. AVaddel, D. D. In accordance with 
a resolution adopted by the student body, which was kept 
profoundly secret from him, they agreed that immediately 
after morning prayer in the chapel Dr. Waddel should be 
addressed by a representative student, congratulated upon 
the occasion, and presented with a magnificent copy of the 
Bible in the name of the students. The chancellor having 
officiated as usual in leading the devotions of the Faculty 
and student body, was, in a most unexpected manner, ad- 
dressed by Mr. W. L. Frierson, a student of high standing, 
from Shelbyville, Tenn., as follows : 

*' Eeverend Sir : On behalf of the student body, it is my 
pleasure this morning to extend to you our congratulations 
that you have so happily witnessed the close of your seventy- 
fifth year ; that you have attained to three-quarters of a cen- 
tury of life, and of a life, too, which stands before us as a 
mirror, before which we may fitly trim and adorn the char- 
acters we are building. 

" If, sir, it will gratify you to know in what high esteem 
you are held by the students over whom you are called to 
preside; if the good-will of boys can afford you any plea- 
.sure, then I am happy to say that no man could possess, in 
a higher degree, our love, confidence, and res^^ect than do 
you. We feel toward you not merely that respect which 
gray hairs always command of youth, but, in addition to 
this, that admiration which only a noble life and a godly ex- 
ample can inspire. In your fair and impartial treatment of 
all students ; in the confidence you have reposed in us ; in 
your forbearance in the class-room, and in the general man- 
agement of the institution, we have had all that the most 
exacting could ask. We have always found you ready 
and anxious to aid in our pleasure so far as consistent with 
our good. And when, occasionally, it has seemed best to 
deny us our requests, we have felt that we should yield 
without a murmur, reposing, as we did, full confidence in 



f 



Appendix. 579 

your wisdom, and knowing full well that your action, was 
prompted by jouv deep interest in our welfare. In the 
kindly warnings and friendly advice which you have given 
us in jDi'i^ate ; in the many hospitalities shown us by you 
and your good wife ; in the hearty welcome which you have 
always accorded us at your home, we have recognized a 
father's influence. By your course, sir, you have awakened 
in every heart here chords of love and sympathy, which vi- 
brate at the very mention of your name. 

" In bringing a testimonial of our regard, it seems to us 
that the most appropriate, and that which we knew you 
would most highly prize, was this Book of Books, upon 
which, as a foundation, you have erected the towering su- 
jDerstructure of a Christian life, the rock upon which, we be- 
lieve, the only true and enduring hopes of all ages have 
rested. Now, sir, I have the honor to present to you, in the 
name of the students, this memento, accompanied by the 
best wishes of our one hundred and fifty students for every 
day of life that yet remains for you." 

Response of Dr. Waddel. 

" Sm : In responding to your beautiful and eloquent ad- 
dress, my first remark is tliab this occasion is to me a com- 
plete surprise. On entering upon the regular duties of the 
day, I had not the slightest anticipation of such an event as 
has just transpired. Allow me to add that, on this very ac- 
count, it is all the more to be cherished and prized. To you, 
young gentlemen, I have further to say that, for the emo- 
tions now struggling within, I find no adequate utterance. 
I cannot command language adequate to convey a true rep- 
resentation of the feelings which your kindness has inspired. 
Yet you will accept my simple and unadorned declaration 
that I am deeply penetrated with a grateful appreciation of 
the dehcate thoughtfulness that gave rise to the conception 
of this method of observing my birthday. The graceful 
propriety w4th which the whole scene has been presented 
cannot fail to elicit the gratification of all present. Permit 
me to say, however, that " you do me honor overmuch " in 
the beautifully-exr)ressed and highly-finished comi^liments 
paid me by your gifted speaker; and yet I am not suffi- 
ciently unselfish to dechne accepting them, since to me they 
are replete with priceless value as declarations of your own 



580 Appendix. 

'Convictions. They shall be laid away in memory as trea- 
sures not to be surrendered, and among my most valued pos- 
sessions. 

"Let me add, that among the most kindly utterances 
given to-day, there is one which I honestly claim as but just 
to myself; that is, w-hen speaking of my intercourse with 
my pupils, it w^as said that the characteristic of my treat- 
ment of them was imiform kindness. The larger portion of 
my life, now somewhat protracted, has been devoted to the 
practical business of teaching. From my eighteenth year 
almost to this day I have been associated with young men 
and boys. So closely have I been connected with that class 
that I may say, without exaggeration, that we have become, 
in a sense, identified. My sympathies are wdth them ; I 
have come to comprehend their nature, and they have 
learned to appreciate my mode of thought and action in our 
mutual relations. Hence, as I have advanced in this line of 
life, I have become more and more convinced of the truth- 
fulness and j^ropriety of the motto often uttered from this 
rostrum, which accords to the student ' the largest liberty 
consistent wdth the recognition of authority,' or, to express 
it in fewer words, 'Liberty without license, and authority 
without despotism.' 

^ "I will add, that if there does appear to be any wisdom or 
skill in my administration of the affairs of the institution, I 
hasten to point out to you the true secret of my success. 
"Well do I remember the expression used by an eminent 
Georgian, long years ago, in reference to President Nott, of 
Union College, N. Y. Dr. Nott presided over that institu- 
tion for a half century with w^onderful success. That you 
may appreciate the force of my illustration, you must know 
that Union College, in those days, w^as considered the 
* Botany Bay' for such students as could not be governed 
elsewhere. The gentleman who made the remark was an 
alumnus of that institution, and he asserted that *'Dr. Nott 
governed Union College by prayer." I can safely say that 
for any success which has attended my administration, I 
sincerely and humbly believe that to gracious answers to 
•prsijev I am entirely indebted. Its interests, more general 
or minute, have formed the burden of my thoughts by day 
and by night. Realizing, as I do at all times, my own in- 
ability unaided, to devise that which is wise and for the best 



Appendix. 581 

interests of the institution, this great enterj^rise of Chris- 
tian education, I have earnestly and habitually sought and 
obtciined the help that has brought to us the present meas- 
ure of success. 

"In conclusion, I thank you for the peculiar form in ^vhich 
you have chosen to embody your affectionate observance of 
this memorial era of my life — the blessed volume of inspira- 
tion — the book of books — the one, of all others, most wor- 
thy to be prized. Most heartily and truly do I thank God 
that, of your number, so large a proportion are praying 
Christian men ! 

"And now, as I close these remarks, I have a request to 
make of you. I make it of my highly-esteemed colleagues. 
I make it of you, my kind-hearted and attached pupils. 
Give me an interest in your prayers ! 

" May the blessing of Almighty God, our heavenly Father, 
rest upon you all, both in this life and in that which is to 
oome! Amen." 



On pages 551 and 552 of this memoir, it is recorded that 
the ceremonies of the inaugm-ation of the chancellor-elect, 
Dr. C. C. Hersman, were conducted in regular form. It is 
further stated that, after the conclusion of these interesting 
exercises, a portrait of myself was unveiled, accompanied 
by an address delivered in his own inimitable style by Dr. 
B. M. Palmer. --^ ' 

Address. 

"Ladies axd Gentlemen: The pleaoing duly is assigned 
me of drawing aside this veil and of presenting to the Uni- 
versity, in the name of the artist, W. J. ]\Iac(Jcrmac, that 
which will be disclosed to view. You recognize the likeness, 
and I am sure that, in j^our grateful applause, the kind 
donor will find his sufficient reward. 

" Two faces now hang upon these walls. In the first is 
revived the memory of the past; the first effort to plant 
here an institution of learning, to lay the foundation, hidden 
perhaps beneath the soil, upon which has been reared the 
proud superstructure we now behold. In the second is pre- 
sented the realization of the early hopes — the young bud of 
promise expanding into the bloom of our present prosperity 
and enlargement. The time will come (God grant that it 



582 Appendix. 

be not too soon) when another picture will here be hung — 
the historic link between these two — presenting the face and 
form of one to whose wise counsel and unselfish devotion, 
more than to those of any living man, the transformation of 
Stewart College into the Southwestern Presbyterian Univer- 
sity was accomplished : 

"Venerable and Dear Sir: There are men whom we 
could wish to live forever, yet it would be cruel selfishness 
to detain you always from the w^orld beyond the stars — • 

* Where the saints of all ages in fellowship meet, 
And the smile of the Lord is the feast of the soul ; ' 

but w^e are obliged to say that we part from you to-night, in 
your official relations, with unspeakable sadness. Gladly as 
we welcome your successor, and sincerely as we pledge 
loyalty to him as the chieftain under whose banner we are 
to be led, still it pains us to the heart to see the robe of 
office removed from your shoulders to those of another. 

" Gentlemen of the Board, and friends of the University, 
it was an auspicious day for Clarksville when we laid our 
hands upon this apostle of education in the Southwest — this 
Nestor among the Greeks; and we bear the willing testi- 
mony that his administration during the past nine years has 
been one of exceptional success. 

"Dr. Waddel, after more than fifty years of active service, 
the infirmities of declining age induce you to seek the Tuscu- 
lum where, in dignified repose, you may end your days. You 
are sitting in the glow of your life's sunset. Three times, in 
journeying to and fro between Clarksville and my distant 
home, I have gazed upon the si^lendor wdth wiiich the king 
of day often sinks to rest. Gathering the curtains around 
his bed, he threw upon those clouds such a glow of mingled 
purple and gold as ravished the eye. The mountain cloud 
flung its gigantic form against the sky ; along its crest and 
down its sloj^e w^as a border of burnished gold, while the 
deeper blue of its body was transformed by the radiance 
into the richest purple, such as priest or emperor never wore. 
Above, around the wdiole, colors of brilliant hue inflamed the 
sky, until, in the raj^ture of the soul, one could but exclaim,. 
* Surely, this is the gate of the palace of the eternal king.' 

" So, my brother, as troops of friends gather around you 
to-day, you may see in their admiring love the reflection of 
your own useful and fortunate life. The shade of your 



Appendix. 583 

Teneratecl father rises before my thought, surrounded by 
the shades of statesmen and orators — the Calhouns, the 
McDuffies, the Longstreets — who shaped the age just before 
our own ; and around your living form assemlDle the living 
forms of those who now fill the places of trust, and are 
shaping the destiny of the present. It is not given to many 
men to know that they belong to history ; to read upon her 
scroll, beneath the fame of an illustrious sire, the resplend- 
ent fame of an equally illustrious son. It is not often given 
to men, amid the applauses of earth, to ascend and be with 
the immortals. May God in heaven, my friend and brother, 
bless you with peace even to the end, and give to us both to 
drink together of the river of life from beneath His throne ! " 






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